Poor Raichu needs some none Diabetic rep SOMEHOW
Funny, I just watched a video about how much GF loves to push (normal) Raichu to the side, notably recently to give Pikachu more special treatment:
Though the video didn't mention it, the biggest example for me is not giving Raichu a Mega in Gen VI. Nope, oh but as soon as they made mechanics where Pikachu was able to get one like Z-Moves and Gigantamax yeah Pikachu got those. Though that video did help me realize that even Alolan Raichu was played dirty in the anime (at least a few times normal Raichu showed up and battled, while eventually losing to Pikachu because of course, it would at the very least be written as a legitimate power threat Pikachu has to outsmart to beat).
I mean, you could rationalize it in that he doesn't care about his Pokemon at all, and his ace simply defaults to whichever is the most powerful. Did he have a Sneasel in his second battle?
He always has a Sneasel on his team as he always had a Murkrow.
But, being this had to be a deliberate choice on their part, maybe there is something to the intentional switch. In Platinum, first two battles has his Murkorw/Honchkrow highest level before switching to Weavile. During those two early battles Cyrus was directly leading Team Galactic, much like Honchkrow is the top boss of a flock of Murkrow. However, during his final battle, he's completely alone in the Distortion World and is going through a mental breakdown. While Weavile's dex entries mentions it working in a pack using coordination and cunning to hunt prey, it has also been portrayed as violently malicious; a cold-hearted slasher killer. Going from Honchkrow to Weavile shows Cyrus has dropped the mob boss act and is now showing his true insanity and viciousness.
This obviously wasn't planned in DP but likely something they thought up while thinking of ways the mixing up his team. But maybe we can find a way to sort of backtrack this. In DP his ace is always Sneasel/Weavile, in addition in those games we never really got a sense Cyrus thought little of Team Galactic. In the sense of that game, Cyrus had always been showing his "true" self. Platinum added the angle he was deceiving the members of Team Galactic, thus now showing he's wearing a mask thus likewise uses a Pokemon that would help further his boss appearance. It's not until he's alone and breaking down does he reveal his true self thus now reverts back to using Weavile.
Caitlin having a Metagross is indeed bizarre, though I would say that Metagross is in a sense an honorary Unova Pokemon since this is the first region it's naturally available in the wild, and it's a pseudo-legendary, which makes it even more eligible as an ace Pokemon, thus making Caitlin a prime candidate to use it, but she doesn't the first time around since Metagross isn't available in Unova until the post-game in BW1. In BW2 Metagross is her ace in both the initial match and rematch in BW2 in the Challenge Mode, but for Easy/Normal Mode I suppose they felt it would be a bit too strong to face the first time around so they opted to keep it away, they probably felt Iris having a (yet again underleveled) Hydreigon would be harsh enough for players. I dunno, but that's probably the best explanation I can come up with here.
My theory is more to show she's a foreigner. Instead of having one of the new Unovan Pokemon as her ace, something she would have to have caught upon coming to Unova, when she's really putting her all into things that's when she takes out her older Pokemon and her strongest is Metagross. It should be noted that Beldum were actually first made widely available via Swarms in Gen IV on Route 228. In addition some of Caitlin's other non-Unovan Pokemon are Bronzong, Gallade, and Alakazam all which are in the Sinnoh mon or at least in the regional dex. And remember, before she was an Elite Four member she was a Frontier Brain. However, due to her psychic powers going wild whenever she got super stressed she was prohibated from directly battling so Darach battled in her place. Elite Four is likely less stressful than than Frontier Brain as there are less challengers (and also the likelihood that anyone challenging the Elite Four either isn't strong enough to beat them or is, kind of imagine little middle ground there), thus also being a good position to help her master her powers.
Nintendo philosophy is really funny. "Our games are so good that there's never a reason for them to lower price and as such they'll be always worth the same". Idc if your game is a masterpiece im not paying 60$ for a game released 15 years ago
Nintendo, no one is saying the game has gone "bad" and that's why people want to pay less or want cheap collections. It's rather the fact it takes little effort on YOUR part to port these games thus the savings you make should ALSO be given to the customer as a courtesy. Right now you could just decide to make all NES, all SNES, and a majority of N64 games (and maybe even some Gamecube & Wii) that Nintendo owns for free when they purchase your online service. Doing that one simple thing (along with then trying to secure permission to get license games available & adding more N64/Gamecube/Wii games) would likely negate a lot of criticism of your online service. Or heck, just release bundles of your older games in a big collection for lower prices (like $40, $30, maybe even $20) cause, once again, you're just porting these titles so you're saving money of developing a full game thus customer courtesy should be also giving us a piece of those savings.
The only thing you get from keeping them at premium prices is the appearance that you're a shyster (if not full on scammer) trying to nickel & dime your customers whenever you can. You're not seeing your game as a "good game that deserves to be played thus deserves every penny", you're seeing the game as something that's quality is solely based on it being part of a known brand so you can "get away" jacking up the price, or rather get away overcharging any poor sap who buys the game from you. This is why people emulate your older games; not because they don't want to pay, but because they don't want to be overcharged (and also you just randomly decide to make some games unobtainable without owning an older system; remember there are older games on the Wii & Wii U virtual store that aren't on the Switch's virtual store even though there would be no problems porting it over).