That is a good point. Will bias reign supreme like with swordies in general or will people turn on Sora for being very campy?
I already postulated about public reception of Sora in my post on the last page, and if you set aside the fact that the admiration for him is currently heavily influenced by community optics more than anything, I can't imagine the public is going to turn on him for a while, at least while he's still low key.
If you look at some of the more disliked underrepresented characters, the one that immediately comes to mind is Banjo & Kazooie. One of the main reasons Banjo is so disliked by people is because they claim he's campy, but the reality of the situation the way I see it is that people dislike him because his output is molasses. Back some time ago I posted an out-of-context screenshot of OwlBBS being up two stocks over Chag's Palutena despite being at 200% damage. What largely went unmentioned about that set is that it highlighted how for all of the cool tech Banjo showed like his Blaster combos and cancels, the most optimized Banjo combos barely scratched 30%. That's Sheik numbers of average damage output for a character arguably expected to play closer to Snake, and Sheik at least in her prime performance exhibits game play that relies on second-to-none aggro. Playing campy is one thing, but to have rewards so bad with inconsistent reliability to push advantage is anathema to any audience empathy. There was no easy hook to rally behind a character who's virtues were extolled only by the most fringe of player bases. Sora meanwhile might lean defense, but there's no questioning his capabilities to get decent damage, convert into KOs, keep opponents juggled, and generally keep the game's momentum going, even with his slow mobility. Sure, he has to be on the butt end of playing wi-fi tier matches against Sonic, but he's not the only character who has to put up with that, and while players like MinMain have demonstrated that Sora is very powerful at planking, the most successful performances we've seen of him do not go with that as the optimal strat.
That aside, I also think last weekend showed that there's genuinely something electrifying about the way Sora's magic system works from an audience perspective. Firaga and Blizzaga both allow Sora to jockey between playing slightly more aggressive, while Thundaga is more of a move to use in advantage since it's tricky to hit but provides a satisfying pop when it happens. Not being given the liberty to freely use whichever you want means that there's a rhythm to Sora where you're basically waiting for that balance to shift. Having to watch Sora is basically watching two different games happening; the one on screen and the one on the UI. Steve kind of has that factor as well but the worth of his materials is pretty abstract from a spectator's perspective and it's not as deterministic, especially when the only thing everyone's expecting to happen is the Diamond win state, and when it also hides things like redstone.
The most derogatory comments I'd read the whole weekend was how Sora was a "Mickey Mouse character". The worst thing people could agree about him in the moment was how his play style is hilariously funny and how it works despite everything. Of course, it took some time until the joke ran its course when Steve had similar sentiments, but there were a lot of reasons things soured quickly for him, and as long as Sora is still the underdog I'd be surprised if things change so radically.
EDIT: Related, new Tweek Talks is up and the main topic is Sora. Tweek thinks he's Top 20 and better than Sephiroth.
/ 
