@keepitsimple I know that you enacted an essay ban here early on, but you said later on that it would be OK if we have a constructive civilized discussion which I'll try to do here.
I like Serena as much as anyone, but she shouldn't have even been here.
Serena is still anyway better than the OS iteration of Ash though, so nope she fully deserved being here over any OS Ash moment, and recieve more votes than any OS Ash moment which she did BTW. OS Ash was nothing more than an arrogant and immature d1ck who didn't earn majority of his badges legitimately, received pity throughout and yet felt proud about it, brought his own false hype into the League, didn't sort out Charizard's disobedience issues despite having 2 whole months to sort it out, and thereafter lost the League is the most embarrassing fashion possible due to his Pokemon "refusing to fight" and taking a nap in the midst of a highly important League battle for Ash, making it clear to the huge audience/spectators who were watching that League stadium that someone who is competing high profile tournament like a Pokemon League, in the round of Top 16, can't even get his Pokemon to listen to his commands during a battle, leading to an embarrassment/humiliation of a gigantic proportion of himself at the big stage. Ash only realized and came into terms to this flaws, trying to sort them out himself later on after certain important events in OI, even after such an embarrassing loss in the Kanto League, he still didn't quite learn his lesson, his immaturity, his arrogance, his inflated ego still remained after the Kanto League as evident in certain early OI episodes. Whereas Serena realized her own flaws/shortcomings, came into terms with them and strengthened her resolve to get better and focus on her goal, which her "cutting hair short" moment symbolized.
Which is why Serena's moment certainly is better IMO and I do believe that it deserves priority ofter literally any OS Kanto Ash moment. OS Kanto Ash failed to realize his own shortcomings and mistakes at the right time, didn't come into terms with his flaws at the right time, brought his own false hype into the League and failed big time, while Serena did realise her own flaws, came into terms with them, straightened her resolve in time, which is why she just about came one step away from becoming Kalos Queen.
Serena >>> OS Ash.
Now XY, DP and BF Ash would obviously be above Serena.