I think Ishihara's comments doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Like I've been saying about the Switch as well as games that came before it even existed: the distinctions between console and handheld gaming have been blurred for years. Thanks to improving handheld technology, we've been getting console experiences on handhelds (an example would be JRPG franchises moving from consoles to handhelds and still maintaining their gameplay elements and experiences). Even if Ishihara references the change in hardware, what would be so difficult to apply from the older Pokemon games to the current ones? The GTS, and online trading via friends means that trading doesn't HAVE to be limited to local multiplayer like it was in the old days. Online battling also makes finding matches more convenient though you also have the option to play local multiplayer. If anything, the concepts in Pokemon should be easier to apply to the Switch, not causing so much cognitive dissonance about how it can work. It should theoretically work without changing so much about the franchise (speaking strictly in terms of features, Pokemon as a game is a completely different story) because you can access local multiplayer and online multiplayer in both handheld and console mode, so what's the big deal?
In my eyes, Ishihara's comments are much ado about nothing.