I was guilty myself, of shipping Ash once, but, now that the series has gone this far and switched "the girl" out more often than the average human changes socks, on top of having read the statement from the producer that Ash wasn't meant to fall for the girl tagging along, but instead the job for the young male demographic.
Knowing these anime series, the GUY usually ends up with some unknown girl or someone completely unexpected they never had any chemistry with, like how in Digimon, Tai and Sora were having all these tender moments, or facing the ultimate sacrifice to save each other, while whats-his-face... Matt? Spent three quarters of the season, exhibiting some serious little brother complex of some sort, yet runs off with Sora by Season 2. Or completely different, how the creator of Zelda, NEVER even had the thought of Link and Zelda ending up together, until he saw how popular it was on the internet, and how. Japan just isn't very romantic.
My apologies. I'm just saying: Have fun shipping, but it will either end with a completely unfavorable pairing, left obscure, or just none at all, once the series comes to an end. Here's how I seriously think it will end. Ash is seen "passing on the torch" to his child of unimportant gender, who is like a smaller clone of Ash, giving NO indication as to who the mother is, just so everyone can imagine it's their favorite pairing in the end.
TRUE END: Ash is seen "passing on the torch" to his child of unimportant gender, who is like a smaller clone of Ash. As the child runs off into a beautiful morning sunrise, waving to his/her parents, we see Ash, wrapped in every single one of his female companions from the TV series and movies. They are all the mother of the child. Because Science and Internets.
Given they literally work themselves to death and have culturally convinced themselves that's how people ought to live, no one's surprised by this one, friend.
Excuse you but would you really call a nation that made Kimi no Na wa AKA the highest selling non-Disney romantic animation movie ever, and where Shoujo and Josei mangas selling like hotcakes "not romantic"? Don't presume an entire country is something because of a single TV show they made.
Pokemon is a kid's anime, that's why romance is not and never will be the focus. It's like how harem animes will never portray a full and meaningful relationship, it's simply "not the point" of the show. It has nothing to do with Japan's approach to relationships as a country, much less its work ethics.
It's really more that, because like 90% of all media (Japanese or otherwise) makes the most high-profile male and female characters getting together MANDATORY that people freak out and claim the author is a freak if they don't all write the exact same love story every time. That includes the people who were screaming threats at JK Rawling because Harry Potter wound up with a girl who wasn't the one with the most screentime. (Not even dateless, just having a male lead get a lower-than-top billing romantic interest is grounds for a lynch mob.)
I remember someone making the argument about how romance is mandatory, no matter the genre, including action and horror, would appear as alien to people outside our culture as if we were to visit an alien race where all media, no matter how serious the rest of the media was supposed to be, had to have a choreographed square dance competition somewhere near the climax.
So yes, in ONE anime, which is meant for kids too young to understand romance, they never wind up having romance. In further un-romantic news, Doc McStuffins never gets married to Stuffy over the great protest of the show's "older fans".