What Progression and Reward systems would you add to these games?

Pokemon is weird in a line up of RPGs. The genre is all about growing stronger and finding items to improve your squad. You do a quest and find a Mythic Sword in Dragon Age, you explore a cave and find a high level Garchomp. That's where the similarities end though.

With most RPGs, progression happens all the way to the end of the game. There's always most stats to increase or better gear to find, and if you get useless gear, you can sell it or strip it for crafting parts later.

With Pokemon, you may not even want the rewards you get. That strong Garchomp is cool, but you already have this Frigibax you've been training, so Chomp is sitting in a box. Going down an optional route can net you a choice scarf, but is that necessarily a straight upgrade from the Muscle Band you had on earlier? So many Pokemon and items just sit taking up space which I don't enjoy.

If it were up to me, I'd have some kind of collect-o-pedia like in Xenoblade where you can donate excess items to towns to boost your reputation. This would do stuff like unlock new quests and items at shops. Put some cosmetics behind this system and watch how many people start actively hunting for Iapapa berries.

As for unused, having some kind of job system like the Pokepelago treasure hunt but with more specific requirements would be cool. Imagine a city is doing renovations so they need 5 ground type Pokemon above level 30 to help with construction.