More important are the sugar lumps that you need to level up your producers. You only get 1 each day (20h with upgrades) and need 55 to get one to Lv 10 that unlocks the achievment for the Producer.

If you want to see the end of ash’s journey, I recommend watching sun and moon seasons and then “pokemon journeys” (the sword and shield seasons). Journeys are the final seasons with ash but has a few episodes that are a callback to sun and moon.

Pokemon horizons has new protagonists, is currently airing and has about 23 episodes currently.

For automation I can recommend the pack “Create: Above and beyond” as it teaches you the best tech mod aviable for modern versions. There is a colony builder mod called MineColonies that you can just add to any recent modpack.