A while ago, I gave Sasuke Uchiha a pass on his character mostly because Boruto made him more mature and surprisingly chill. Let's see if I can do the same for Ash Ketchum.

Ash Ketchum is easily the most frustrating character ever to come from anime as everything from plot armour to dumb luck sees him advance from each season smelling of roses despite not winning the league on multiple occasions but breaking the league performances down he did an admirable job in each.
Kanto he earned half his badges through kindness I guess and it showed by how Charizard treated him, Team Rocket didn't help but up until his loss he was doing pretty well.
Orange Islands to this day is still his most deserved trophy beaten only by the Battle Frontier.
Johto felt like the league we should've got in Kanto and beating Gary was one of Ash's finest moments, still lost the next round.
Hoenn was more of the same but the puss in boots Meowth is a little bull shit but Battle Frontier more than made up for it.
Sinnoh was really unfair to Ash, after beating one of his strongest rivals he battles an OP legendaries trainer.
Unova was a downgrade after following such a good season but it was nice to see Ash switch out Pokemon frequently like a proper trainer.
Kalos felt closer to Sinnoh but another OP trainer had to be put in front of him.
The game changer was Alola where he finally won but there was bullshit involved to get him up to the top but I blame shoddy writing.
So coming to now and Ash has some pretty OP Pokemon, along with Pikachu is Mr Mime, Dragonite, Gengar, Riolu and Galar Farfetch'd. That's one OP team and were barely 20 episodes in and considering who travels with him now, he's no longer the worst character, and that's crucial.
When you put yourself in Ash's shoes, he's no different to the millions of trainers who started out playing the games, so his interaction with the world and people around him only serve as a learning experience and I don't think you can fault the guy for some of his dumber moments when in most cases this is the first time he's seen the new Pokemon that turn up every episode; travelling around with his numerous companions and how they play off Ash is crucial as well. It's also because he loses tournaments that Ash feels more human and over 20 years of this we can finally look at an Ash Ketchum who you can proudly say that he's a good Pokemon Trainer. My hopes for the current season as there is no limit to where he can go, Ash has a chance to redeem his Kanto mess ups in his quest to enter the Championship setup in Galar.
So is Ash bad? No, at worst he's frustrating and a bit moronic on days where he should know better but 22 years of trying and succeeding, I can't help but feel proud that he managed to achieve his goal.