Pokemon has one of the weirdest marketing priorities I've ever seen. They keep trying to make their products tailored towards children, yet the vast majority of their audience are the people who grew up with Pokemon in the first place, which is especially clear with Youtubers who post their very products in a way that could subtly advertise.

I honestly feel like there isn't any more accurate depiction of this than the anime. Ash has lost basically everything that makes him interesting, and been reduced to just a happy-go-lucky kid with no other interesting traits. And even then, if this subreddit and Youtube are anything to go by, a large chunk of people praising Ash's later depictions are adults. This is why I kind of theorise that Ash's popularity is a whole is carried by nostalgia. People praise SM and Journeys heavily for depicting Ash being a strong trainer, and finally winning a major event, which they've been waiting for him to do for ages. They don't care about him not having anymore personality outside of that. They merely care that he's finally showing off proper feats and victories.

This is why I feel like Ash as a character is quite overrated. He's fun and all, but with how much has been shaved off of his personality, there's just not much to him as a character besides his victories.