Looking at the individual move tier lists ESAM has made so far (and the Smash attack tier list by Panda) got me thinking.
I've talked pessimistically about
for a bit on here, but I've mentioned that I really like his design. I think these lists emphasize part of why. I don't necessarily agree with the placement of Megaman's moves on all of the lists so far, but I understand why they are where they are. For those who haven't seen, Megaman's moves have all (so far) been placed near the lower end of these lists.
To be fair, they haven't gotten to the strongest stuff in his kit (pellets and metal blade) but in a vacuum I could see why people might think Megaman has a largely mediocre moveset. But things don't really apply in a vacuum in the actual game and Megaman to me kind of feels like a character that is more than the sum of his parts. Moves that seem middling or mediocre, that when applied with the other tools in his moveset, as well as his mobility, have just enough use to make sense.
I wanted to emphasize that because I think there are some characters who kind of suffer from the opposite problem. Characters who have good moves, maybe even a good number of good moves in a vacuum, but that just don't come together in a cohesive way and the character ends up worse for it.
That's all a bunch of theory crafting anyway, but I just wanted to take the opportunity to heap some praise on Megaman's design.