It was a neat effort but I think it's one of those moments that shows the strong and weak points of the series. It was cool they tried to give every character something to do for example, but the issue is that they only managed to make it any interesting for half of them. Ash's limelight as usual held up, they even demonstrated his flawed side a bit more, and Kiawe and Sophocles got one pretty solid development episode each. Hapu was also a decent guest character even if her arc felt a little rushed about (ESPECIALLY the actual Grand Trial). The girl students' limelight however was pretty tepid, largely because they still don't know where to go with their actual personalities and agency.
Mallow got a really emotional limelight episode, but it kinda falls into the 'Bambi's Mom' category, having some sort of really devastating backstory that would be effectively poignant no matter how good the actual character was. Her actual motive driven limelight with the radishes and trying to boost her credentials as a cook? Utterly dull. Lana got to evolve Brionne but again, it was just the same dull stuff, blow bubbles, congratulate Brionne on making a slightly bigger one than before, and stage 3: profit. They don't know how to actually make these two interesting in what they do long term. Even Lillie, despite revelations with her father and Gladion reappearing was a pretty bland presence this arc.
There even seemed a bit of self admittance in this regard since their roles were nearly always tacked on as a B plot rather than even attempting to have them hold centre stage anymore, which also had a side effect of truncating the other characters' development. They didn't even contribute to the comic relief much until the very last episode, which expectedly meant Flanderizing Ash's butt monkey role.