While I agree that Sakurai clearly has weight to throw around, I wouldn't be so quick to argue that he is dictating these fighters pass characters or lied about Nintendo choosing the characters or has the power to force any character into the DLC. As others have said, Sakurai wasn't thrilled about the idea of a fighters pass that people had to pay for without knowing the contents and Nintendo could have chosen characters that they know Sakurai is knowledgeable of and would be excited to incorporate into Smash to get him on board. Also, many have pointed out that each character has many factors going for them that would be appealing for Nintendo: Joker represents Persona and SMT and SMT has a legacy and history on Nintendo consoles and also could encourage those who do not own a Switch to get one to play as Joker I'm Smash, Hero has a huge presence in Japan as well as a legacy that has been cemented on Nintendo consoles and also represents the amiability that is growing back between SE and Nintendo, Banjo has major Western demand and has been heavily requested by fans as well as demonstrates the fact that Microsoft and Nintendo are going to continue to grow in their partnerships not to mention that this wasn't even a Sakurai pick, and do I really even need to talk about Terry? I mean Terry makes the most sense of all seeing as how his games were the impetus behind Smash and SNK has been supportive of Nintendo over the years.
I mean unless fighter 5 breaks this in some major way it's safe to say that these picks do make sense for Nintendo to make. It is a little unfair to Sakurai to accuse him of lying when the man has poured himself into these games to such a degree and simply has made public the fact that (shocker) he, as a gamer, enjoys a variety of games and appreciates their legacies and what they have to offer *gasp*. Nintendo could pick from many other franchises that Sakurai has mentioned he likes simply because he likes many games. No I think it is still very much in Nintendo's shoulders who makes it in as DLC. We do not know what's going on behind the scenes. There may be no plans to add multiple fighters from the same company as DLC and they simply went with a Dragon Quest rep which really does make a lot of sense and isn't an attack on us.
We are always going to try and find evidence for Geno in any way we can because it's the way we see things and it's what we want to see. It's not unfair for Nintendo or Smash to give many nods to SMRPG (a game that was on the SNES classic and has been on previous eshops so clearly Nintendo has some degree of respect for it or at least knows it will sell well enough for their purposes) as an attempt to acknowledge fans without plans to actually include a character from the game in Smash. That is just the narrative that WE are writing and it's not fair of us to assume every little tiny detail SHOULD mean that conclusion when that very well probably isn't the intention of all these little details.
Many characters have similar little odd details here and there that make people believe they could be a candidate for Smash but it doesn't have to mean anything outside of Nintendo acknowledging other characters, games, franchises or whatever the case may be. Many little details =/= getting into Smash, yet it seems that's how everyone treats these things. The only thing that leads to getting into Smash at this point is being one of Nintendo's selected few and we simply don't know what adds or detracts from a character's chances in that regard. And I just went into all this detail to show that Nintendo probably really is the force in charge here but that's not even the point I'm getting at here.
Even if Nintendo is to blame for Geno not getting into Smash it really is just rather immature of us to get upset at Nintendo or Sakurai or felt led on. We have not been led on and any feelings towards that simply come from our own tunnel vision and lack of greater perspective (which is admittedly understandable because trying to understand Nintendo or Sakurai's thought process and vision is a fool's errand). All these nods to SMRPG are a good sign but they don't = Geno getting into Ultimate and that shouldn't upset us because what we are getting is nothing short of astounding. Disappointment is inevitable but getting upset can be prevented with a perspective shift. Don't be one of the entitled fans. Fighting for something for so long without reprieve is certainly upsetting, but simply fighting for something never means that that something will become a reality so let's all be adults about it and try to have some understanding if things don't work out.