ShadowDialga

Cacnea evolves into Cacturne at lvl 32, we are talking about a Cacturne here, an evolved pokemon, it couldn't just have hatched a few days ago. When you read the rest of the novel, the evolution is pretty consistent with the games in terms of level, though not exactly the same. So, to see a Cacturne at this point of the story is completely crazy as it would mean that to be an evolved pokemon, it would need to be at least lvl 30. But I think it's just a translation error, and it was supposed to be Cacnea instaed of Cacturne.

Technically, there is a Pickup Chart, which shows that the higher the level, the better the items found are. A lvl 100 picks up better items, so it's not a surprise that his lvl 5 Zigzagoon don't often find rare candies. Catching the Linoon lvl 30+ of this route would allow him to get his Pickup business back on track.

*Sheer Force

*Drought ability

Castform or Smeargle maybe ?

Lvl 7 ? Then how the hell did the Caturne from before fail to one shot it ? A Cacturne is at least lvl 30 with a type advantage as well as the stats and the wealth of experience that come with it ! If levels are this useless in this world, then with this Froakie, you can sweep the first two gyms right now, and pretty good trainers can subdue legendaries with just a bit of luck ! Although I can understand the need to set up the situation to show that this Froakie is impressive and worthy of being in the MC's team, that's a bit too much to bend the rules like that, levels are useless if that's the case and the story will become really uninteresting. Well, I know this is a translation, a really good one by the way, but it's a shame that the story itself seems to tend toward being full of plot armor and situations to show off just how great the MC is comparedto the rest of the world.

What makes you think a Torchic can do better than a Cacturne against the frog ? Especially since this Torchic is still pretty new to pokemon battles, and probably around level 10 with a type disadvantage...

Well, finding 13 Ralts out of 300 encounters is perfectly normal and not an impressive feat. It's said the probability is 4 to 5 %, so 4 to 5 Ralts out of 100 encounters, 8 to 10 out of 200 and 12 to 15 out of 300 encounters. In terms of probability, 13 is neither bad or impressive, it's just normal.

*80 $/poke/pokedollar but not just "80"

There's Lotoad, though I am not sure if it's on this route or the next one. This pokemon can be pretty fun in real life : Grass/Water (just 3 weaknesses), correct stats, not too hard to farm for a full IV and/or shiny, Swift Swim with Gigadrain/Surf/Ice Beam/Rain Dance/Nature Power/Hidden Power and it can even be used physically in real life with Sword Dance/Fire Punch/Ice Punch/Thunder Punch...