Yeah, the Strong Sphere's deal is almost exactly what I figured it would be. Spinel's whole thing revolves around laziness and shortcuts to the top, and the Strong Sphere is exactly that, from what I can tell.
The whole promise that makes it appealing to the masses is that it's a tangible "tool" that allows anyone and everyone to become a "strong Trainer", but it's a shortcut that refuses the long, honest process of forging bonds with Pokémon and becoming stronger through honest training and forging a deep relationship between Pokémon and Trainer.
It basically encourages the Paul mindset (as in Paul from DP), only in some ways even worse. From what was shown of the masses using it, it basically leads to a shortcut mindset, where in battles, when both sides are using the Strong Sphere, the battles are not only quick, but the Trainers' mindset not only rejects forging honest bonds but also encourages complicity with strength or lack thereof, with statements like "I don't need to train anymore" if they win or the idea that the Pokémon itself is fundamentally not good enough and they need to switch to a naturally better Pokémon if they lose. It's a really sad and isolating way to be a Trainer.
That was basically Paul's mindset for most of DP, since he would catch Pokémon, check their moves, and release them if he deemed them not good enough, and keep them if they were. The difference in his case is that he wasn't lazy, but he was extremely harsh in his training and would drop a Pokémon quickly if it didn't live up to his expectations and give him results. He eventually came to understand the power of bonds between Pokémon and Trainer, just in his own way, since he's not super kind like Ash is, and still isn't, but he came to acknowledge the genuine loyalty his strongest Pokémon have to him (because, despite everything, the Pokémon who performed best under him did genuinely love him). Ash did his damndest throughout Sinnoh to try to show him the error of his ways, even if it took him a long, long time to do so.
Only the Strong Sphere makes that mindset the common one and rejects the honest mentality of forging true, deep bonds of friendship with Pokémon through the long, honest way. It's harder, longer, and slower, but it's much more profound in the end, which Ash proved way back in DP during his Sinnoh journey, because even though it took him a long time to claim a victory against Paul, he did eventually come out on top, and with the Pokemon who was under both of them and experienced both of their training philosophies.
The Strong Sphere basically creates a false equality that's artificial. Yes, everyone "can" become a "strong Trainer", but in a very lonely and isolating way. Not to mention as a power-up it's being distributed as a consumer product to the masses, unlike Mega Evolution and Terastal, which have to be earned and are a passed-down battling art. Same with Z-Moves and Dynamax which were also shown in Sun and Moon and Journeys, both of which Ash had to earn in a way.
