LONG POST WARNING! I’m about to go into this in detail, because I study Zoology and this is super interesting and fun
It would appear that the exception to this rule would be baby pokemon, who must evolve in order to reach sexual maturity (i.e. they must evolve to breed, whereas all other pokemon can breed at any stage) Though not necessarily tied with aging, it does show that in this case, evolution has a purpose in maturation.
However one must remember, that in order to obtain many baby pokemon, the parents must be holding a special item, or else they will produce the standard second level stage, for example two marill will produce another marill, not an azurill if not holding the sea incense. I think it is best to disregard this in the general scheme of things, as the mechanic was only introduced in order to let pokemon from previous generations get earlier stages
The Pikachu line has the best canon examples of aging without the need for evolution. We have the baby pikachu from ‘Pikachu’s Goodbye’, which is notably younger and more juvenile:
And then there’s Puka, from ‘The Pi Kahuna’, which is at least 20 years old and shows definite signs of its age:
The younger pikachu should be taken with a pinch of salt, as pichu did not exist at the time of the episode, and we now know that two Pikachu/Raichu will produce a Pichu regardless of an item (it is the juvenile stage of this line), and that this pichu must evolve/mature in order to breed.
However, returning back to the OPs question, what is the point of Raichu? Why is a more advanced stage needed, when the life cycle can be carried out as the pokemon is?
I think it’s important to look at what the equivalents to pokemon evolution are in the natural world. I’ve always seen it as some sort of rapid metamorphosis, and that leveling up represents growth and the gathering of resources. Once the minimum amount of growth/resources have been acquired (or another factor such as an evolutionary stone, freindship etc, which I will not be going into due to the outrageous complexity it adds), the pokemon has the capability to undergo this rapid physiological change. We see this minimum threshold met at the level of evolution. However, the pokemon does not have to undergo this, and can remain in the earlier stage regardless of age.
Does anything like this occur in our own world? There are actually quite a few examples within the amphibians, especially with salamanders. Most amphibians exhibit obligate metamorphosis, i.e. they will always transform from an aquatic larval stage to a terrestrial/semi terrestrial adult stage, however some salamanders exhibit a mechanism known as paedomorphosis, whereby in this case, sexual maturity is reached within the larval/semi larval stage which are therefore able to reproduce without the need for the adult stage. In basic terms, it would be like a tadpole being able to live out its whole life as a tadpole, without having to turn into a salamander. Sound familiar?
Paedomorphosis can be obligate, i.e. individuals never metamorphose and remain in the aquatic larval stage their whole lives (e.g the Hellbender salamander, Cryptobranchus alleganiens)
However, facultative paedomorphosis can also occur, whereby individuals either become paedomorphs and remain in the larval aquatic stage, or metamorphose into the terrestrial adult stage, depending on the ecological and environmental conditions experienced as larvae. (e.g. in the broken striped newt, Notophthalamus viridescens dorsalis and the mole salamander, Ambystoma talpoideum). The process and benefits are little understood, but seems to mainly be driven by the availibility of food and other resources.
So, do pokemon exhibit this facultative paedomorphism? There are far more variables and potential causes than food and environment, for example with training, and other evolutionary methods, but the process could explain quite neatly why some pokemon, like the Treekco, can carry out their whole life without the need to evolve. Of course this is all just speculation, but it is fun, and surprisingly challenging to try and explain the mechanisms of the very alien pokemon world.
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