I actually always thought that was where they were going to take the character of Kes in the long term, until they axed her. There is no reason that she could not have stayed on the show as well as Seven of Nine. These two characters worked well together in ‘The Gift’. Maybe a character arc of Kes could have been her long term mentoring and friendship with Seven of Nine instead of Janeway taking this role in her life? I like Janeway mentoring her but it could never get too close on a friendship level because of rank and duty, even though it did Seven no good being mentored by Janeway anyway as we see in Picard. With Kes it could have been more of a ‘best friends’ relationship, where you have a friend who gives you advice and helps you out, teaching you about life? Like school best buddies almost. I think that they tried to replicate this type of innocent relationship between Seven of Nine and Naomi Wildman. Kes could have learnt that she is good at counseling through her interactions with Seven of Nine, helping her to find her ‘humanity’ and recover from her traumatic time in the Borg Collective. Seven could even have suggested it to her as she recognised that Kes would be a good counselor, encouraging her on to that career path. I actually REALLY like this idea in hindsight. Ah well!