But uniqueness is clearly not an end all or even highly relevant point of interest for characters in a game about representing the past and present of iconic Nintendo icons.
I need better diction iconic icons lolol
Uniqueness however, plays a big factor.
Let's say, hypothetically, we have two characters that are major characters for a particular series (the main character is already included), and both are equally important.
Character A has nothing (or very little in common) with the character that's already included. Character B is near the same as the character that's already included, but slightly different.
Character A would be considered first. Character B would be considered as a last-minute decision clone, however.
However, if Character A, the unique one, had much less importance than Character B, then Character B would be considered first if a character is considered at all.
So your Lady Bow argument holds no water.
Don't see why K. Rool vs. Dixie needs to argued, though, as K. Rool beats out Dixie in terms of importance, uniqueness, and popularity.