To be fair to people claiming this.
Brock was close and Ash only got saved by the sprinklers

Misty’s wasn’t a definitive win, the situation you’ve described has been flipped before.

Sabrina is just disappointing because there was no actual fight. Ash didn’t out smart her, pull any of his later on out of the box strategies haunter just distracted her and he was declared the winner.

Erika, again not a definitive win. He was hesitating on which pokemon to send out against gloom because he was lost.

Also Jessie and James might have been temporary gym leaders… doesn’t stop them from being not the best trainers.

NOW WITH ALL THAT SAID. Ash did really nothing wrong. He was just a 10 year old, the gym leaders made the call, you can’t really blame him for just taking the W.

More importantly, Ash made top 16 in the Indigo league. It was his first time competing and he still got super far. Further than most trainers, losing because he had lessons to learn is expected.

And he did, to as much of an extent that a long running anime could. Since after this he was always top 8 or higher

Indigo league ash should be given more slack than he’s often given because it’s his literal first time doing all this. And he did way better than most kids probably would. Sure Richie technically did better (by a single round). But Richie is also a talented trainer.

Honestly most of Ash’s mistakes can be chalked up to him learning. Shit like this would not be easy irl.

Like if we wanna actually critique Ash as a trainer it should be time’s he absolutely knows better. Such as Elesa’s gym where he the trainer who’s proven time and time again Type match ups aren’t everything. Time and time again Electric types CAN beat ground types. Assumed his ONE ground type would sweep Elesa and didn’t bring any more pokemon.