It's been stated in various canons that poke balls contain inner worlds of their own; they're designed for comfort and meant to encourage a pokemon to "curl up" into a natural state of defensiveness, as it's apparently best for rest and healing. In essence, poke balls are environments engineered to make a pokemon feel safe while also nudging them into resting and recuperating.
Pokemon and humans, while evolutionarily similar, possess notable differences that distinguish them. Pokemon's moves are a pretty good example, as is there ability to undergo some sort of rapid metamorphosis when their power levels exceed those of their current form - aka pokemon evolution. Presumably, there are other factors that also allow them to be captured by poke balls - factors that humans don't possess.
Them becoming data or energy isn't entirely impossible - the logic of it if we apply irl physics might be difficult to tweak - but then again, pokemon themselves are incredulous in the irl world anyway.
As for working on digimon - digimon aren't in the world of pokemon, and as with the ability to distinguish between humans and pokemon, I imagine that poke balls would be able to distinguish between digimon and pokemon too.
When it comes to technology, however, the pokemon world seems to be one with a heavy emphasis on integration with nature. People live on a much closer level with their fauna than we do here - they use them for all sorts. And think about it: why would you need flying cars when there are plenty of pokemon that can teleport you instantaneously to your desired location?