It seems Pokemon anime viewership declined from the Kalos series, especially during the XY&Z series, which aimed to be a mature "real" anime. A spike occurred in the SM series due to its focus on game characters over new Anime-originals characters, but poor art style and the Kalos League fiasco likely capped its success. Viewership fell further in the JN series, as it replaced lead female characters with Goh as Ash's sole companion.

In other words, Pokémon quality declined due to new anime-only characters like Alain and Goh. The Pokémon anime executives likely hired a lobby to defend XY&Z and Alain by blaming Ash, similar to Lex Luthor's monkey.