I'm having trouble understanding why we're still arguing this. Neither Ness nor Mario are great characters. We can argue that Ness' grab releases hurt him, but he no longer has an infinite, and we still have one to deal with. I'm sure that we can agree that infinite >>>>> grab releases (that don't even combo into anything spectacular) so, by that logic, Mario is the worse character.
The point is, PKNintendo will never buckle and say Mario > Ness, and I doubt any Mario mains here will concede that Ness > Mario. I honestly don't know/care which is true, because we're both in the same boat. Even if one WERE better than the other, given the knowledge that we currently have, it wouldn't be marginally so; there would only be a slight advantage with that character in competitive play.
So there. I just proved this argument pointless.