So what is the deal with avatar characters? A lot of people give them flak for being boring, but a lot of them are fairly well liked within the community. As far as I'm concerned there are 17 of them in the game:
Hero, Inkling, Joker, Link, Lucas, Ness, Pokémon Trainer, and Villager are the most well received, with Joker and the Inklings being popular before their inclusion, and Lucas being wanted back after being cut (though this applies to most veterans). To be fair though, the Pokémon Trainer is kind of cheating since you don't actually play as him, and people generally didn't want him back because Squirtle and Ivysaur were seen as wasted roster slots (though I may be misremembering that with people just not wanting them on their own). At present though the character is fairly well liked since the implementation of his swapping mechanic has finally been done right. Hero had some backlash, but it was over "anime swordsman" and "ew RNG" stuff. Neither of which were really disliking Hero as a character specifically (though there were quite a few people who assumed Erdrick would be boring). Ness gets a lot of hate because of PK Fire, but I've never seen anyone hating his spot on the roster in principle. Lastly, Link has had the spotlight on him for so long that people don't really consider him to be an avatar anymore even though he still is, now even moreso than ever. Regardless, he is an extremely beloved character within Nintendo's lineup.
The Mii Fighters, Robin, Wii Fit Trainer, and the other Links have a more "meh" reception. The Mii Fighters in premise sound like a lot of fun, but in practice don't really interest people. This is probably because, why play as a generic brawler, swordfighter, or gunner when you have Mario, about 12 other swordfighters, and Samus/Dark Samus respectively. I'd imagine the people that do like them are happy they exist rather than actively excited for their inclusion, though that's probably the point. Robin gets hate mostly due to being from Fire Emblem with his positive trait usually being cited as "at least he's not another Marth". Outside of Super Smash Bros., he's a fairly well liked character. People's problem with the other two Links has more to do with the fact that they feel redundant rather than the fact that they exist at all. That and the three of them make up half of The Legend of Zelda's characters, which is pretty sad. Wii Fit Trainer is just a weird character that nobody asked for so people are either going to love her or not care since she's not really that offensive an edition.
The only two avatars that are actively hated are Corrin and Byleth. Both get the "Fire Emblem bad" hate, but Corrin is even hated within the Fire Emblem community due to his (or really, the game's) awful writing. Byleth isn't nearly as unpopular as Corrin is, but even for a Fire Emblem character, he wasn't most people's first choice of the realistic roster picks, though they do understand why he was picked over her.
I guess where I'm going with all this is: Why are avatar characters seen as "the boring picks that shouldn't happen" when a lot of the ones we have in the game are either incredibly well liked or bring new and interesting ideas to the table. Did people just get burned by Corrin and Byleth or is there something I'm overlooking?
