The first time I played through the game, this scene struck me especially hard. There are definitely moments before this in the game that begin to show the player that this is no regular Pokemon game, (namely Beryl and Lapiz ward), but I do feel like this is when the pacing begins to take off in the game.
Currently replaying through the game after a few years. The furthest I've made it was to Charlotte's gym back in 2016. Last time I tried playing 2 years ago, I got stuck on Kiki's gym fight. Excited to get back into the story and to officially experience the ending.