Why would Sakurai put Ness in alongside Lucas? It just makes absolutely no sense at all. They would have almost an identical moveset, and look the same except for hair and a hat.
There are multiple reasons I could use, but I'll go with "Why the unusual FS and many special move/standard move differences?".
If he were replacing Ness, wouldn't it make sense to make all his moves the same?
Also, there's the original 12 argument, the Japan Only Emphasis argument, the " what's a good reason to remove him anyway?" argument, and so on.