I've always had such mixed feelings about this episode. On one hand, it's always lots of fun to see Ash face off against legends, he's using his reserves (I absolutely adore his Hoenn team), Pikachu vs. Latios is one of the most exciting pulse-pounding battles in the series, and Sceptile was awesome.
On the other, the rest of the Hoenn team were treated like complete garbage. They deserved far better than that. Torkoal and Swellow have both proven themselves against legends, so they definitely deserved a better performance than that trash, and it's painful that this ends up being their final battles and what they're remembered for—getting OHKOed.
Swellow was always absurdly bulky, so it should've tanked a couple hits and landed one or two itself. Torkoal's defense was always praised as well, as demonstrated when it took tons of abuse from Registeel and nearly won. It deserved to tank a few shots and land a hit. I'm glad they at least made its Flamethrower look especially powerful.
Gible was given WAY too much credit and should have never even been brought to the fight. It's literally the newest member on his team and a basic stage Pokemon. A week before this in universe it wasn't even close to mastering Draco Meteor, and now Tobias says it's suddenly capable of OHKOing almost anything? They're just trying to make up for it appearing at the tailend of the series. They should've given that slot to Torterra, honestly.
I understand they were pressed for time so they could get to the Best Wishes filth, but it honestly would've been better to just off-screen some of the action so the reserves don't look so pathetic. Torkoal and Swellow OHKOed by Dark Pulse and Luster Purge respectively is such a joke.