I think one of the reasons why Urbain/Taunie feel weirdly written and so many people have grown to hate them after the story of the game is because they are written like a main character but relegated to be a rival.
I'll preface this by saying I love Legends ZA and it's become one of my favorite games ever, so I'm not spewing hate like many others do, I'm just trying to analyze a character from a game I love.
Without spoiling too much, Urbain/Taunie has clear ties to the main story, has a lot of stuff going on, a lot of mystery surrounding their backstory and current story, and has a lot of character growth based on making tons of mistakes we really don't see so we can't easily empathize with.
Over several spots in the story they go on to steal protagonism from us, the main characters, to the point of having a fight to prove who gets to have an important role, the mc winning the fight and still Urbain/Taunie getting to have that role because they really want to. And narratively those moments make sense and actually lead to very interesting and important story moments. The problem is that those important story moments for them make sense as part of main character narrative, but they are not the main character.
We've seen similar themes being employed in SV DLCs with Kieran, and in Sword and Shield with Hop. The thing is, I don't think they're going for that in this case, because there's no real conflict between the mc and Urbain/Taunie in regards of sense of importance, protagonism, or self-confidence. I think Game Freak are just trying to tell their story without letting us be the main characters of that story.
I believe this comes from Game Freak trying to perpetuate the "avatar mc" + rival formula but wanting to have a main character with story ties in the game. Heck, Urbain/Taunie LOOK like the default mc. And I think the story is really held back by this. If game freak embraced the idea of the game's mc being a full person instead of an avatar, which would make sense for the more narrative-focused Legends games, Urbain/Taunie's story would make a lot more sense as our story, and finding out about it as we play would be even more interesting because the mc having a backstory doesn't mean the player has to be aware of it as we start the game, plus solving the "new kid arrived in town 10 days ago and fixed all of our problems" narrative.
Heck, the position of a "mc not chosen by the player being the rival" isn't even necessary in this game. We already have a group of friends with two rivals to measure ourselves with. If they really wanted to create a fully "equal" rival they could have really just added another character in place of Urbain/Taunie to be a more classic rival archetype like Green, Silver, Barry or Hau, but even then games like Black and White are proof that things can be just done like that and they work.
I understand the desire for Pokemon games to have an avatar mc, but when it comes to more story-focused games I think it's really hindering the narrative. Legends Arceus at least had the excuse of us being a trainer with the expertise and confidence from the future compared to most people in Hisui being afraid of being in the vicinity of a Pokemon, so that's why our random asses stand out. I hope for the next Legends they leave this "main character rival" trope behind.
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