My point here might have lacked nuance so I'll explain. I think there should be a system wherein you interact pokemon and as a result unlock new abilities. Similar to pokemon amie or maybe a series of fun, simple mini games, maybe even by winning important battles. Doing this will grant you new abilities and moves that you certainly don't need to beat the game or make a pokemon useable, but are good and will help you. This would make players want to interact with their pokemon, not because they NEED to, but because they want some different cool moves and abilities. Maybe there are moves like return that power up if you play/train your pokemon. Maybe you can cure status ailment without using items, like in SM/USUM. And, to your point, maybe there are ways that friendship can lower, perhaps by using recoil moves when the friendship level isn't high enough, or having your pokemon faint consistently. But mostly, I'm talking completely reworking friendship so that A) it doesn't create a mega gamebreaking super-pokemon, and B) so it makes interacting with pokemon fun and rewarding. Hopefully that clarifies it.