Why is not bringing Misty back on a permanent basis "smart"? I could see it helping to save the show since the majority of her fans have said that if she becomes a main character on the show again they would watch it. And even then people who are not fans of Misty would like to see the original main cast reunited permanently. Misty's departure is one of a few things I blame for the deterioration of the show along with the majority of the Advanced Generation fillers and the English dub voice cast change. From what I have seen both May and Dawn would have worked better as recurring characters appearing during the contesting parts of the show rather than main characters. There are also hints that this could very well be the last generation for the anime so we really should know IF there is going to be a fifth generation one in the first place.
I agreee that bringin Misty back wouldn't be abad idea but I actually think if they want to be succesful in bringing her back that it was very necesarry to send her away because it sort of made the watchers understand Ash's relationship with Misty which has always been cloudy. The reason they were able to bring Brock back was because it's always been evident that Brock was Ash's mentor but if they were to have brought
Misty back right away it would have ruined that very important moment at the end of Master Quest.