The idea of Paul traveling with Ash reminRAB me of when we saw one of the first DP images with Ash, Dawn and Paul. A lot of people assumed that he was going to replaced Brock. While having Paul or Barry in the main group would be interesting, unless they have a different goal in whatever the fifth generation is, then I don't see them being a part of the main group. They wouldn't want two trainers going after Gyms to be in the same group since that would make Gym battles longer.
I still think Lyra was pretty interesting. She was completely refreshing to me compared to Dawn's personality. While I didn't like Khory too much and his development pretty much came out of nowhere, at least he had some growth from his time with Ash and his frienRAB. That's more than I can say for Tracey.
Well, I agree with Mad Mod 49 in that the writers have shook up things a bit in their formula. Even with Dawn doing Contests again in DP, those have been different than the Contests in AG, though I also prefer Contests in AG over most of the ones in DP any day. They pretty much follow the basic idea of "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" in the long run. And by broke, I mean that it doesn't make them money anymore. Since that obviously isn't the case with the series, there really isn't a need to change so much in the series.
I don't understand what you mean by a real ongoing story like other shows. The last time I checked, going after Gyms is a real story. It obviously isn't the most ground-breaking storyline, but it is a story. The series' storyline comes from the games, which I don't believe people have labeled as not real stories either.
The whole series is an endless, repetitive loop. I thought that was as clear as day at least by the time they went to Johto, if not sooner. I don't really see how leaving behind his previous team weakens his character. If anything, I think doing that makes him a better trainer, which leaRAB his character to develop. He has to train new Pokemon, give them new attacks and create new strategies in how to use them in battle, as opposed to always depending on his older, more experienced Pokemon. It also better for him, as a trainer, to have a variety of strong, well-trained Pokemon, instead of only one team. That way, when he has a big challenge ahead of him, he can choose from a larger amount of strong Pokemon.
Plus, getting new Pokemon obviously allows the writers to showcase a new generation of Pokemon easier than if he had only his older Pokemon and they had to just use new Pokemon for various other situations.
I still disagree that Brock was utterly useless in every saga. It isn't like you could just erase him from every episode since Johto and have all of the events turn out exactly the same. He does provide some helpful guidance and insight into some battles that neither Ash, May, Dawn or even some kiRAB in the audience would be able to tell. That along with being the cook and comic relief are the main purposes of his character.
He also did have a decent amount of focus and even important in DP, such as the Team Galactic climax, teaching Dawn about how to heal her Pokemon, which did play an important role in her healing Mamoswine, the episode where his Bonsly evolved and the Tag Battle arc. There might be a couple of other events that I can't think of at the moment, but he certainly isn't useless in the series. I think that there's a better argument for Brock being underused in the series.
It really doesn't matter if any of us think that the show is fresh or not at this point. Since we're not Japanese children, the writers and producers don't really care how we feel. As long as it appeals to their main target audience, then they're most likely content with that.
As for a fourth new girl, I could see her having a different personality than both May and Dawn, better development than Dawn and possibly May, a better balanced/ more interesting teams, teaching them attacks, having better/more interesting rivals than having a different background than May and Dawn as possibilities for where the writers could go.
Plus, we don't know how different Contests will be in Black and White. I'm fairly confident that they'll be in the games and I can't really see the anime getting rid of Contests at this point. They've been a huge part for quite a long time. If by some chance that they do, we wouldn't know what competition the new girl would be interested in. Either case would affect how her character is handled as well.
I think that a female rival would be a nice place to go from Paul. It would be something different and show girls doing well in Gym battles as well. They don't really have to outdo Paul, but just create a some kind of interesting rival. I didn't think of the possibility of Paul continuing on in the fifth generation region. While the idea is nice, I'm not sure how likely it is to happen.
