>>58035685
I think the gen 2/4 design does help because it at least attracts some people to Misty that prefer that design over her gen 1/anime one. Problem is that it's more niche since it only appears in post games, never appeared in the anime and any promotional material using Misty is using her anime or gen 1 design. I don't think there is any official art of Misty's HGSS design outside of the done by Sugimori for the game.