Canon shipping

That is very true. They do forget or downplay a lot of the old companions. However, that isn't true for Dawn. High Touch makes Dawn's and Ash's relationship timeless! Just because they don't talk about her all of the time doesn't mean she is out of the picture. They remembered Piplup and how can they forget the one series that wasn't just "The Story of Satoshi". They included Dawn and made it "The Story of Satoshi AND Hikari". Both the title and High Touch are very big hints with Dawn being the only co-star and best friends with Ash. Piplup and Pikachu are also best friends while buneary still has her crush on Pikachu. All of these passed the test of time according to Dawn's cameo, and personally, I think remembering Piplup did as well. It may be an implication to Dawn at best, but it at least showed the best friends from dp, all together, weren't fogotten.

it's too bad i can't find any good japanese DP episodes with subs online, because they say the japanese version has way more pearlshipping in it. is this true?? and does anyone know a good site where you can watch, with english subs?

In Japan, Pearlshipping is so prevalent that it's considered to be canon. They are far more zealous than we are. They're also a reason why Amourshipping hasn't really gained a following amongst them, even after some of the staff actively support Amour. They are also expecting DP remakes and a return of Dawn to the show. I mean the writers are mostly the same as before, even Tomioka but he's doesn't write as many episodes as he used to. I don't think they're actively promoting Amour as Amourshippers think they are. Cause we know that they want to present Ash and Dawn as equivalents of each other, so Amourshipping in a sense is a mix of other non-Pearl major ships. I mean why else would he mention Dawn's Piplup? Dawn's Piplup is the reason why Piplup is still reasonably popular after 9-10 years.

Yeah but after Kanto, they've always considered about the anime internationally *cough* Tracey *cough*