I've played a bit of Episode 17 and I did find the AI a bit more lackluster compared to the previous episodes, but I don't mind it much. In terms of AI updates and such for the next episode, I intend to wait for a proper hard mode to be released since there was a hint of that being a feature in a future release post Episode 19.
I wouldn't mind at all replay reborn again just for a hard mode playthrough.
If hard mode doesn't become an official thing , I could do that since I haven't done a proper challenge in a pokemon game before!