I am. The only difference between that and what I did is that I didn't make it superscripted since you can't do that on this forum.
I'd argue that Ganondorf is an exception. There aren't too many characters that make sense as clones at all, so to find them from two separate series is really difficult, especially with the tighter restrictions that Echo Fighters have.
All I can really think of for possible clones like that are Blaziken (Captain Falcon), Gardevoir (Zelda), and Birdo (Yoshi).
I have no idea what you're on about with model swap fighter. If Ness used Mario as a starting point because it would be better than starting from scratch, I might buy that, but that doesn't make him a clone of Mario. They don't even share animations. Wolf makes a lot more sense since he very obviously repurposes animations from Sonic, and I think a few others, while also being close enough to Fox for him to be an obvious starting point.
As far as Echo Fighters being tied to the numbering system...Keeping the system when they don't have everyone would be way more confusing than having multiple Echo Fighters to a slot since there'd be a whole lot of skipped numbers. I suppose you could just renumber the characters, but it would still be weird, and would definitely be pretty arbitrary. Also, the numbering system makes the character select screen confusing since it splits all the series up so unless you're up to date on your Smash trivia (and even then), it's annoying to try and find who you want. It's probably why I play the DLC so much: They're in the center of the screen and thus, the easiest to find.
I think I'm going off on a tangent here, but the numbering system and Echo Fighter label exist for marketing purposes. They aren't perfect, and are pretty tied to this game's premise (at least, the numbering system is). I don't believe the Echo Fighter label is as rigid as you believe it to be, as it mainly seems to be a way to say "hey, these guys are little extras. They don't take away from other roster slots", killing a sentiment that was common despite Sakurai debunking it several times, and that was for fighters that aren't considered Echo Fighters. There's also that Dark Pit and Lucina weren't initially called Echo Fighters, which shows that the label isn't absolutely necessary, just helpful.
You're missing the point of Ness. The point is Clones are not Echoes. Model Swap Fighters does not only include Clones either. Echoes are extremely specific kind of Model Swap Fighters that work as different rules, including hard ones that doesn't apply otherwise. A Model Swap Fighter is the actual "Clone" term we originally had for development purposes. Where a character is used as a straight base. To include what I noted about earlier, Ness is a Model Swap Fighter but not a Clone whatsoever(a few of his animations are similar to Mario, conceptually, at best. The other trio are pretty similar in Smash 64 with some moves in comparison, with Luigi being the most similar, while still functioning quite a bit differently. Even moreso than Dr. Mario did for Mario in Melee).
Wait, are you seriously suggesting that an Echo will stay and the base won't?(I probably misread that, though, but if you are, it won't happen) No. Doesn't work that way. They are only there because the base exists. Period. It isn't confusing whatsoever. You don't need to see anything but "oh, this is their reveal number". That's it. That's the entire reason they are numbered in that order. It will never be an issue. The only way they'll cut how Echo Fighters work is if they 100% remove them, which means no, they aren't being "reformatted into a regular clone". They're either tied to the character or they don't exist. That's what an Echo is, a glorified costume(hell, no wonder Dr. Mario isn't. He wasn't a costume anyway).
Ganondorf doesn't really matter anyway. He's a Captain Falcon clone because it was the sole way he got into during Melee. The point is that Echoes are actually hard tied to franchises because a single slot will never have two characters from a different franchise. That's what it actually means. And no, Ganondorf isn't an outlier either at all. He's exactly the same as the others. Easy to make because he had the proper model to be able to be retooled from the base.
Some of those clone ideas aren't really plausible. Birdo and Yoshi function very differently to the point it would be a Wolf situation. It's way overstated how similar they are. Their models are somewhat similar. That's it. Blaziken and Gardevoir are cool mod ideas, but also, that's it. Blaziken can slightly resemble a few moves, sure. But he's just as bad as Ness is. Gardevoir has little to no similarities beyond some similar bodyshape pieces. In other words? With her capabilities, she probably could be similar enough to Wolf is to Fox if you push it. These examples were always terrible. Especially when only Ganondorf, who really isn't an outlier in how clones work, works because his actual characterization and own skills could be redefined to somewhat work with Falcon's abilities. Ganondorf literally is a physical powerhouse and it's shown even in the official artwork, of which he takes his Forward Air from.
Overall, these takes don't really make sense in development. There's too many attempts to find really strange outliers when they don't exist. It also is trying to find examples of something that don't matter. The Echo placement of being part of the same franchise, as I said above, is only because you can't have two characters from a different franchise entirely in the same slot. It doesn't work. Ganondorf has no relation to that factor and it wouldn't matter how many times a clone was made from someone else. The only thing it would mean is said clone couldn't work as an echo without extreme confusion. No more, no less(and unlike the odd Birdo thing, you aren't going to get confused by them sharing the same slot. She has been suggested as an Echo, though honestly, Boshi fits way better. Ironically he's the same technical issue, but you both know they're clearly Mario characters, eliminating the issue anyway).
A good way to put it is this; these are not exceptions or outliers. They're just unrelated coincidences at times. I mean, do we have to remind people that Falcon was built off of Samus and Jigglypuff was built off of Kirby? These are identical to Ganondorf's situation. How is he an outlier but they aren't? Exactly. Stop trying to put a round peg into a square hole to justify this. It doesn't work.
That said, fair enough on the numbering system. I don't believe it's going away absolutely, but it's very clear they have a hard Echo system set up that won't change or be modified just because the numbers are gone. The numbers are part of it, but not the most important part. It's meant to help organize it, but you still will see the same exact handling of Echoes anyway. They stay next to their counterpart, and are the only ones who can be stacked. They also are one per fighter intentionally(and way too confusing if it's more than one. Having two basically be MegaMan E is just plain confusing to everyone and... not a very good way. That's also ignoring that MegaMan is probably not eligible for an Echo to begin with, but still).
