^it would be good for dealing with Skarmory, and if she has one, Empoleon. If not, it's still a high-power option if you don't have anything super-effective. Electric also resists Steel.
There are a few fangames that have changed the battle system (there's one I've seen called Pokemon Super Eevee Edition that has four Pokemon in battle at once) but I've never seen one where you could have more than 6 Pokemon in your party. Probably either no one's thought of doing it or just no one's wanted to change it.
You're not wrong, you do need to talk to her. You just don't get healed before the first grunt under any circumstances period. The first grunt being the one who asks what she had for breakfast after she threw another grunt.
The reason you're not healed after Zetta probably is because of not needing to beat DR Gyarados.
OTOH, it's a bit weird that you're not healed in between battling Melia and the first Xen grunt. I needed to use potions before battle in order to beat him.
My favorite is the help center too. I think the requests are fun and the rewards are worth it. I especially liked the alien lab, hair salon, and hidden library ones.
Going through this thread reminds me that people here are actually real people. When you're only used to seeing someone's forum avatar as opposed to their face, it's easy to forget that.
I did one file where I gave it up and one file where I kept it, and I was able to summon the whale in both as soon as I got to the mountain and made it calm. It's probably set to disappear after getting to a certain point, maybe after the barricade scene.
We also already faced Florinia on the desert field. I don't think there's been more than one Gym Leader using the same field, other than Samson and Ciel and that's because they both work at the circus (the field was also made to benefit them both).