Im a fan of pokemon since im 4 years old but things are wierd now with all the pokemon that don't even look like pokemon anymore and pokemon that ash had and now he dosent even know "whos that pokemon" so as pokemon that he allready battled are uknown for him all of a sudden so whats up with pokemon ? its just loosing it...
and I guess its all for the new viwers but what about the old ones !!! so whos with me !!!
While I can't say for sure why this is happening, my take on this is that the people making the show are trying to make the show appealing to a new generation of viewers. Like you said, its all new to them, so the people making the show make it all new to Ash so new viewers don't feel left out.