I'm going to wait for a complete translation of the article before I really take a look at it, but a few notes.
1) I've noticed a comment or two more or less saying wanting "new series" for the sake of "new series" is "bad", but then the same folks making those points follow that with, "I hope they add a first party" which is essentially just "Nintendo" for the sake of "Nintendo". So I'm not actually going to give that idea any weight.
2) With Nintendo choosing the characters (which we knew), this is more of the same. We know Nintendo also picked the first pass. Based on that, I still do not believe that there's going to be this dynamic shift where we get more than 1 (maybe 2) 1st parties, and in a position where those Nintendo characters are something other than advertisement picks similar to Corrin or Byleth (Though I do not believe we'd get another Fire Emblem character).
3) As this is being propped up to be "it" for Ultimate, I have to believe that Nintendo wants at least some of these picks to be big. Or at least, a few of them. DLC has shown to be a powerful business tool, developing relationships for Nintendo as well as bringing some larger series to Nintendo as a result.
That said, I believe if Nintendo is in charge, at least at this point, certain characters are going to have a tougher time being chosen. If it were solely Sakurai making the picks, I'd say certain things have a better chance. With Nintendo specifically making the picks though, I'm not so sure.
4) We also don't actually have a "definitive" timing for when the Season 2 was planned and/or picked. For all we know (I could be wrong) this season was planned out from the beginning, and these picks have been in the works for some time now
This matters why? That changes the discourse entirely. It rules out far newer picks, it could rule out upgrades of any form....though, that would also assume that they "masterminded" the entire process which I'm also not entirely willing to believe.
It's still pretty early but the article is pretty interesting to say the least.