Might want to read through that one again before accusing people of poor reading comprehension. He didn't want to say the name because talking about Geno often opens a can of worms, but Geno was his prediction for FP11. He then defended that prediction by explaining why he didn't think Mii costumes deconfirmed, and later (sort of) elaborated on his process of elimination.
Hmmm, I went back through his post history just to be sure. By you saying he made the Geno prediction, I take it you're referring to
this post?
Reading it again it seems like you may be right after all, but it's more that he was careful in his choice of words to try and distance himself from it by phrasing it in a way that gives him deniability. "It's an unexpected prediction" doesn't necessarily mean "I'm the one making this unexpected prediction". And in his
next post he mentions that he "isn't really gunning for Geno", which helps frame things in that light a bit more. I thought it would be odd that he mentioned COVID being a factor if the character he was talking about was indeed Geno, though giving it further thought I'm guessing he was implying that a hypothetical Geno reveal would have perhaps taken place between Steve and Sephiroth?
Either way, there's a much better argument against Geno being CP11 than simply 'Mii Costumes Deconfirm', and Geno fans won't be happy hearing this, but a full-fledged playable Geno simply wouldn't be that radically different from the Mii Gunner in the first place. Geno primarily fights with guns in his body, he has his signature Geno Beam, Geno Whirl, etc., if you want to dig deeper you could also incorporate battle items like Rock Candies, Fright Bombs, maybe the Mushrooms you can buy in Monstro Town? But doesn't the Mii Gunner already have moves similar to most of those? What's left where you can switch things up and really differentiate Geno? A gimmick focused on timed hits? Not a very interesting concept and would probably make using him more annoying. Powering up with a Geno Boost recovery? Randomizing battle items?
People would complain about the implementation of Geno being very lazy and a "wasted slot" unless Sakurai radically deviated from the source material, which is something he does not want to do, and even then people would complain about Geno's portrayal being inaccurate and unfaithful. Disappointing fans and being unfaithful to the source material are two things Sakurai absolutely does not want to do. And I genuinely think that's the real reason we aren't likely to see Geno playable beyond a Mii costume. Not as a snub against his supporters, but simply because in this specific case, it really is the best way the character could be made playable in smash.
Oh, are we focusing on music that should be in Smash now? Like the superior Shooting Star arrangement?
A few more choice selects:
EDIT: When the BB code doesn't just werk