can you blame him tho? most of the water types in the game are really bad, either design wise or stat wise (ash COULD also get his Osha back from oak for surf and stuff)
that's what I said later, some gift mons (not all, ofcourse) should be able to be swapped for one of ash his mons in case it's needed. Carvana for example could be swapped for Palpitoad
it could also be that once every so many badges ash is allowed to call prof Oak and add another mon to his roster, in case it all goes to flames of not
not sure if they would aproof of the good docters methots tbh. because while they're thiefs, they still have a heart, feelings and honor. and again team meteor would be a common enemy since they would change the whole world, which team rocket kinda needs th thrive
you could perhaps try a team based on an attack on Titan or Yugioh character? I say try because in some cases it might be hard (mainly the AoT one). but it likely CAN be done
There would be a common enemy in Team Meteor, so they would set a truce, if Team Rocket even tried to get away with any of ash's mons he would feed them to Team Meteor. Also while Team Rocket are thiefs, they DO have honor and feelings.
It might be an interesting story point (on this threag ofcourse, not the game itself) that Team Rocket also went to reborn to take care of Team Meteor, since they're also a threat to Team Rocket. So for a change they team up through the region. Team Rocket would help suply ash with food (instead of using what they have for giant mechs) and Ash wopuld help them get rid of team meteor, since that would also help him