Not really. Lana has more of a chance of coming back, but only because there's a high likelihood of future Hyrule Warriors games, especially if HW sells quite well (and so far it has exceeded expectations). Geno has no chance of ever appearing in a game again. So in a sense, she's in a better situation. SLIGHTLY better.
Not everyone. A lot of people legitimately think that because Cranky appeared as a playable character in ONE DK platformer after years of being an NPC throughout the DKC games, that he's extremely likely to be chosen as a playable character when as a whole he's far more interesting as an NPC than he is playable. Honestly, Cranky loses his charm being made playable, because his charm was in him complaining to you and saying how he'd always be able to beat the game in a flash.