Yeah, this is sorta what Pokémon is all about. It’s handwaved with “friendship” and “the Pokémon are highly intelligent” so it’s more like a symbiotic relationship, but that’s mostly in media. The mainline games, you only use them for fighting and anything you do is for the benefit of making them fight, which is one of my gripes with the series after the introduction of Pokémon contests in R/S, which was essentially a wasted idea even in that game since it’s essentially a side quest where it’s progression is locked by how far in the “story” you’re in… and you progress the story by fighting. It’d be nice if one day, instead of adding so many Pokémon that they end up being unable to include them all, that they instead add trainer classes where each one gives you a different story path to follow.