What don't we know? The things you are describing are advances in what we considered "humanly possible". We also used to think Powershielding consistently was inhuman, but then we practiced and it turns out thats not true. What advanced strategies are there in the game that aren't being utilized to nearly a TAS level now?
SDI, powershielding, shield dropping, pivoting, aerial interrupts, multishines, waveshines OoS, grounded shines out of dashes, catching projectiles, Ganon chaingrabs, etc. The number of techniques being underutilized is actually quite staggering considering how powerful some of them are. These are just tech skill tools that haven't been optimized though. The game isn't all about tech skill tricks. Even if someone could play like a TAS, they still wouldn't have an all-encompassing understanding of the strategy it takes to outplay another human.
One of the most surprising breakout characters in the past was Puff. She didn't start seeing success because of some crazy new tactic that enabled her to do something that was previously impossible. King, Mango, and Hbox just revealed that she had effective strategies people had yet to tap into. There's no reason to believe this same surprise can't occur with another character in the future. Your belief that we "know everything now" is the same one people held back before Puff's metagame evolved. The parallel to technology or politics in society is also pretty clear. People always like to think that their country is immune to the government vs. revolution cycle that has plagued every society ever, and yet, it always seems to happen, and just as predictably, the next generation always seems to think it could never happen again.
What results don't they have? They are hands down the most winning characters in the metagame. Find me a grand finals set in the last year that didn't have a spacie in it. You really need to organize facts and figures before making bold claims like that.
Well first of all, you've committed the very common error of lumping both spacies together. Saying "name a GFs without a spacie" is equivalent to me saying "name a GFs without a Peach or Sheik." A character's results need to be evaluated individually or else you end up insinuating things like "well if Fox wasn't in the game, Falco would be winning all of the nationals!" (Not trying to strawman you because I know you didn't say this, but that's how it SOUNDS after you hear "spacies" used as if they are the same character a million times.)
My second point is one you probably already realize, but the scope of "Grand Finals" is terribly narrow and does very little to determine character potential. Surely you don't think Fox and Falco would be bad all of the sudden if Mango and PP quit/changed mains.
Thirdly, Infinity and Beyond 18 was 2 months ago and had M2K and Wobbles in GFs.
Lastly, you've completely missed the whole point of my post which is that spacies place high more frequently than other characters because they are more popular. If we took popularity into account when discussing placings, I'm very doubtful Fox or Falco mains would have a higher % of success than most other top tiers (offhandedly, I'd guess that ICs are probably the most winningest when taking popularity into account).
Do you honestly believe that M2K has spent the better part of a decade studying every detail of the game but overlooked a hard counter for fox/falco/sheik/marth/... in the low tiers? Its not like he doesn't play those characters, he definitely does. Then multiply that by the hundreds and hundreds of other minds like his that have been put towards trying to take this game to the furthest. It really doesn't make any sense.
I'm a pretty big M2K fanboy, but you can't be serious when you say he has studied every detail of the game... lol Anyway, none of the top tiers have a hard counter. That's why they're top tier... Not really sure what your point was with this tangent.
Fox players can struggle to make top 8 because he is the most popular character, but he overcomes that because he is the best character. If Fox were less popular, then less people know the little perks of the matchup. Then on top of that, Mario/Pikachu are as popular as Fox, thus everyone will know the matchup as much as people know our Fox matchup. But Mario/Pika aren't nearly as solid overall characters a Fox. They will get destroyed by all the good Sheik, Fox and Falco players, because those characters have 1) winning matchups and 2) tons of experience in those matchups.
So yeah, I really doubt Mario or Pikachu would be making top8 in those conditions.
Matchup unfamiliarity is a very real thing, but I guess you think it has a much larger effect than I do. *shrug*
Players want to win -> Players pick the best character
Players see spacies win -> Players pick spacies
The trend has been working this way for years, and slowly people are realizing that is very difficult to place at tournaments without using one of these characters. Popularity is increasing because consensus is made
If this were the case, why wasn't there a surge of Puff mains during Mango's absolute dominance with Puff?
What players have realized it's very difficult to place at tournaments without spacies? Hax is the premier example of a top player switching, but his results are noticeably worse than when he mained Falcon. Armada tried Fox, then switched back almost immediately. HFox... well... LOL... Fox and Falco being the top 2 has been the nearly unanimous consensus since
at least 2010 just based on tier lists, and now that 2 of the top players capable of winning a national main a spacie, people go "OH SEE, THEY (finally) HAVE RESULTS!"