My my, how time flies. Sometimes it seems like only yesterday we first heard the news Misty was leaving the Pokemon anime, it's hard to believe that was a whopping 20 years ago now. Misty left in 2002 at the end of Johto, by 2022, she'll have been gone a full 20 years.
Misty's now in less than 20% of the animes total episodes. Nowadays the ENTIRE series is after Misty left, with 900+ episodes and multiple series. Misty stayed gone not only for Hoenn, but every single generation that came after. There's also a whopping 9+ female companions after Misty, which proves Misty could be replaced with any type of female lead and the show would continue on.
It's kinda funny when you remember how people tried to make a big deal out of Misty leaving, yet she really did stay gone for the end of Johto for the entire duration of the series anyway, and only got a few brief cameos in Hoenn and in SM. I guess a lot of people wrongly thought she would be more important to the show than she turned out.