He's been doing this for at least 10 years back when DP was airing, you can even look through his post history. Back when DP was airing he kept claiming Misty was "confirmed" to come back or that she would replace Dawn and some other such nonsense, posting petitions and whatnot. He got permabanned on Bulbagarden and Serebii years ago because the mods didn't tolerate his rants there. He's been blatantly proven wrong about Misty's appearances for an entire decade yet keeps coming up with new conspiracy theories year after year.
Its blatantly obvious after 14 years Misty isn't going to be a part of the anime ever again, and most of us knew this even back when AG and DP were airing. Even in terms of cameos it seems like those have stopped too (for every character it seems), so I don't expect to see anyone old ever again.
The Sun/Moon saga will be the 5th saga since Misty left. AG, DP, BW, XY and now Sun/Moon makes 5 gens in a row since Misty was axed. If that doesn't clue you in she's been irrelevant for 70% of the anime's run, I guess nothing will.
Not really obvious. What would be obvious is if the show was cancelled. That's obvious under the most literal use of the word.
Also, you DO realize that in Best Wishes, they actually brought Charizard back to Ash's roster, not simply had him loaned to him for the time being from Lisa, right? Under your definition, that would have been impossible to occur precisely because once he's gone, he ain't coming back to Ash's roster ever. After all, "obviously", they'd never bring back a Pokémon Ash had previously let go on a permanent basis, if he were to return, it be strictly temporary before he goes back to Charcific Valley, like with Entei, Clair, the Silver Conference, Noland, and Brandon, no way he'd even get him back to such an extent that Charizard continues with Ash even after the league was lost, and become part of his old party at Oak's Lab. Same deal with Jessiebelle reappearing at all in DP, since "obviously" they wouldn't even bring back a COTD who had not even appeared or even received a mention in years since her first appearance. Yet guess what, those "obvious" conclusions proved to be downright false (and Jessiebelle even reappearing at all was less likely than Misty returning to the main cast due to the fact that she was a COTD, in other words, a character who was specifically intended to be dropped after the first appearance, and that's not even getting into how it took her roughly a full decade if not a dozen years between her first appearance and her reappearance. Even Bulbapedia noted that it was an exceptionally long period between her appearances, and was originally the longest until the MC from Princess vs. Princess beat her out by reappearing for the Kalos League almost two decades after his first appearance.). Not to mention, Brock actually came back in Johto after he was replaced by Tracey.
Now, is it unlikely that she would return, maybe, but it most certainly isn't impossible. And for the record, most people DID think she'll return. They even fought to bring her back, and we won't stop until we either succeed or the show gets cancelled. And as far as petitions, petitions actually saved DisneyScreencaps when it was nearly shut down by Disney. If they can do that with a multinational corporation like Disney to prevent a site from being shut down for possible copyright infringements, they most certainly do the same for bringing a character back. And in fact, this had precedence with Brock.
And for the record, Misty IS relevant to the anime for one reason alone: Misty actually saved Ash's life in the very first episode. If she didn't fish him out of the river, he'd be a drowned body there. Not to mention she's the one who came up with the plan to get out of the St. Anne, and got Ash to fight Blaine in the first place, especially when Gary, his rival, skipped Cinnabar Gym specifically because he believed it to be shut down. She's definitely a lot more relevant to the anime than Team Rocket was, many times their plans barely even impact the characters at all even when they AREN'T pursuing Pikachu, and AG and DP made them total wimps that just wasted minutes on the episodes and didn't even have them being a genuine threat to the characters), not to mention May's definitely irrelevant to the anime (heck, when DP came about, they just gave May's goal to Dawn with Ash not even acknowledging that he traveled with a prior Coordinator when he and Dawn met), and I'd even argue AG itself was largely irrelevant since Ash stayed at EXACTLY the same rank as the prior region, his Battle Frontier win was treated by both Gary and Paul as a complete joke (the latter did so twice by utterly humiliating Pikachu despite his beating a friggin' Regice, and even the former beat Ash despite the fact that Gary wasn't even a trainer anymore, he was a researcher), and as noted above, May's coordinator goal was reused with Dawn, and May and Max in fact doesn't even have any Pokémon Sunday specials, something most of the former main characters both before and after her, even Iris, who is probably the first prior lead to not reappear in the new show, got (Misty and Tracey got Hoso specials, Dawn, Iris, and Dent got Pokémon Sunday specials, and Brock got both a Hoso and a Sunday Special dedicated to him).
Also, I never got permabanned from Serebii.net forums, I just stopped going there of my own volition. In fact, I just logged myself back in. I did get permabanned from Bulbagarden Forums, though. However, the mods did far worse than ban me, they put me through the hall of shame twice for things that were completely undeserved. Actually, I wasn't upset I got banned as I was planning to leave Bulbagarden anyways due to being disgusted by how the mods acted. In fact, the day I got banned, I even posted a Facebook post stating I was banned and made clear I was more happy than sad about it. Only regret is that I didn't help my fellow Misty fans more.
I might as well add one other thing: Would you rather Misty stagnate at her goal, end up descending to the level of Team Rocket in terms of being incompetent, like how the Hoenn Gym Leaders were depicted? Because that IS the alternative to her coming back even temporarily, and that is something I simply cannot allow especially when she was forced to become a Gym Leader by her sisters and did not do so of her own free will. The rest of the cast at least pursued their goals or changed their goals of their own free will. I'd even tolerate a temporary return as long as they at least make sure when she leaves, it has her actually pursuing her journey.
