You essentially say a lot of nothing without making a point.
1) Alain's biggest feat in Kalos was that he was the first Regular Trainer to defeat an Elite four Member.
2) Ash had a close battle with Alain which the latter ended up winning in the end.
3) Regional Champions were always shown to be far more impressive and stronger than Ash. As for your point about Diantha, I suggest you go back and watch the episode. The battle they had "was not a serious battle". Diantha was merely curious about the new power of Greninja that Ash and Olympia mentioned and was testing Greninja. However, what she did was severely underestimate Greninja which resulted in Gardevoir taking unnecessary damage. If it was a serious battle, Gardevoir would've knocked Greninja out. So claiming Diantha was "Outclassed" is delusional on your part. Based on this inference, then Sawyer and Wolfric would be stronger than Diantha, which is stupid.
Based on this simple point, it is pretty evident that most of your points are just pretty words simply hyping up Alain when it is an objective fact that he ranks below the rest of the Regional Champions in terms of feats.
If Ash's end goal is to be fighting the strongest trainer in the world, he should be fighting established trainers far stronger than him. Not trainers who he almost beat. This is what would narratively make sense and is far more objective than the nonsense you sum up to hype Alain.
Again, I repeat, before Journey's, I've always placed Ash's battle and accomplishment against Alain (Despite him losing) far ahead of all his other feats that also include the Alola league and his battle against Kukui and Tapu Koko. That said, from the Master Class perspective, Alain is a nobody.
Sure, they could've hyped Alain up as the new Regional Champion of Kalos (But wait they didn't). I mean sure, they could still hype him up by having him beat another Regional Champion Like Steven/Diantha Round 1. However, fighting Alain Round 1 would be underwhelming when there are established characters who have been shown to be far superior and ahead of Ash in the Master Class (When the purpose of these battles are in a way, meant to be preparing him for the fight against the Strongest Trainer in the world).
I think you need to carefully re-read my post, then, as I made several points. You threw around words like "bragging" (which was either an accusation or a total misuse of the word - either way, it needed dealing with) and "objectively" (and that one was just an outright misuse, which, again, needed dealing with).
I also directly countered your statement that these champions are "far more interesting and impressive"; who is or isn't an "interesting" character is just opinion, but "far more" impressive makes little sense to me when there's 10000 trainers and Alain is literally ranked one spot below a lot of the Champions (and is ranked above another).
Continuing on, you launch into a big paragraph bringing up a lot of other factors about what would or wouldn't have happened when Ash fought Diantha; we can only comment on what
has happened, and that was a competitive match - with Ash-Greninja not even fully mastered. But then we get to my favourite part, where you claim I said Diantha was "outclassed". It really explains how you could say I "didn't make a point" in my last post when you
so badly misread what I said:
"Ash was in no way outclassed in the battle they had."
As in, Diantha did not outclass Ash in that battle. You could argue "oh, she
would have done," but hey presto, she
didn't. And I certainly never suggested, even for a moment, that Ash outclassed her.
So, like I said, if you think I'm not making any points then a careful re-reading might be in order, since you seem to be misunderstanding and misreading some of what I'm saying.
Another error: it is not objective fact that Alain is ranked below the rest of the regional champions, as,
again, he is ranked above Iris. You can refuse to acknowledge Iris if you want, you can act like she's not a "real" champion, act like she is not legit because Ash beat her... but just be aware that to do so is to actively fight the reality of the show, and the reality of the show is that Iris is a) a champion and b) ranked in the top 8...but below Alain. So he is in amongst that Champion tier. Not below it. Amongst it. In it. Part of it. It might be a hard reality to get your head around, because it's Iris and most of her ability is "told", not shown. I sympathise with that entirely as it does feel like a leap. But the fact is she rose from the Great Class, and the loss to Ash, to eventually being ranked over him.
As for "Not trainers who he almost beat. This is what would narratively make sense and is far more objective than the nonsense you sum up to hype Alain," I'm not even sure where to start... my god. Do you like...I mean do you know what objective means? Something isn't "far more objective", it either is objective or it isn't. So you claiming that a narrative decision you personally would prefer is "objectively better" or would "objectively make more sense" is a declaration that your preference is a fact, that your approach to the narrative is the one true way of doing it. That is, of course, total insanity.