Pikachu would still be in the game. Like it's been since game one. My point was it would have to be in some gimmicky area like Safari Zone or the Backlot, and not truely wild like it is in Kanto with the Viridian Forest or the Power Plant.
The way I read one of his post implied to methat he was probably unaware of where to catch Pikachu in RSE & DPP and how it has a subtle meaning behind them. Since the point of that post was to show how Pikachu is able to be in those games and hold it's reign of mascot in Pokemon, especially after he said that another Pokemon should be the new mascot, which to me shouldn't even work to begin with since basically, if you think Pokemon, the public normally thinks of Pikachu, hence his iconic status.
You just can't give a Pikachu out like that anyway, it does still scream to me, Why did you replace Ash if this guy has all his mannerism?
Sure I understand that the shows don't follow that stuff, but I still don't recall any other area other than that forest with Pikachus in it. Besides, I always saw the Johto and Hoenn Pokemon being catchable in Kanto as a nod to FireRed's and LeafGreen's Sevii IslanRAB, which it kind of is since the whole BF arc in the anime was a nod to those games along with Emerald.