I find this argument is super disingenuous.
First off, Ultimate did have a lot of content that was made from the ground up. Almost half of the stages that were brought back, even if they were from past games, were made from scratch. Making a stage like Fourside or Great Bay in modern graphics is just as much of an endeavor as making a new stage. Taking away the N64 stages that were purposefully not upscaled, thats 50 stages that were ready at launch that were not in Wii U. This is not including how Big Battlefield, Battlefield, and Final Destination were redesigned and look different as well. Was all the content new? No, but easily an argument as to why some new locations were not chosen was that
there was really nothing that important to show a new stage of. Smash as a series chooses its stages based on what is happening in the relative recent past of when it was planned out. While this was true in Melee, it was even more true in every game going forward. There is a reason Brawl has tons of Gamecube era stages like Delphino Plaza, Rumble Falls, Frigate Orpheon, Bridge of Eldin, Pirate Ship, or Luigi's Mansion. There is a reason that Smash 4 Wii U and 3DS pull hard from the DS and Wii eras for stages as well. Look at the Wii U and late 3ds era. It was notoriously a rough time to be a Nintendo fan, there was basically nothing to rep. Maybe you could make the case Pokemon Gen 7 or Xenoblade X could have gotten a stage, but even then its slim pickings. Just because the content is not new does not mean that there was not a ton of resources and effort put in that direction.
Furthermore, we got seven cut veterans, with the only ones we know of having any work done on them were Icies. 7 cut veterans, 6 newcomers, Plant almost done in time for launch. Once again, was all the content new? Heavens no, but once again you can't handwave that that is where resources went. We probably could have gotten anywhere from 8-13 unique newcomers at launch if they did not lean into EiH, but they did because they knew that was what fans want. Its not like we got a paltry number of fighters that were not in Smash 4. 7 cut vets, beefed up for the modern era. Characters like Young Link and Pichu now feel different enough from their source characters. That is not including the unique ones we got who already were great but were given that new fresh coat of paint. 6 newcomers, with one that has heavy signs of being meant for the base game and narrowly missed it. Also five echo fighters, two of which are distinct enough you can easily say they effectively count as newcomers too with Chrom and Ken. Yes, they were clones, but they were some of the best done clones the series has ever gotten. They take the base characters tools and change them up enough to make them feel distinct and fresh: clearly inspired by their base character but enough that you have your own different experience.
Finally, you completely disregard the amount of stuff we got outside of characters and stages. A ton more Assist Trophies and Pokeballs. An entire new mode in spirits that offers a new way to play the game while also looking at Nintendo and gaming's history. An entire adventure mode with boss fights that people notably were asking for since Smash 4 did not provide that. Individualized classic modes, something the fanbase was asking for for years. A beefed up training mode. Its not like Ultimate launched with a barebones amount of content outside of the multiplayer modes. If anything,
it has offered the strongest single player experience in the series so far.
All of this was done with Smash Wii U as a base and about 2 and a half years of development in earnest. While development began on the day of the final smash direct, it went on in earnest in April 2016. In that time period, we got the following.
- 50 stages not in the previous game remastered in HD, 53 if you count the redesigns to Big Battlefield, Battlefield, and Final Destination
- Six new characters, with a seventh that has overwhelming evidence of originally being planned for the base game
- Five echo fighters, two of which distinct enough from their base fighter that they are counted separately in competitive from their base fighters.
- Seven cut veterans, five of which unique and two of which that got decloned just enough to make them feel distinct.
- The biggest Solo player experience that Smash has ever offered with a new adventure mode, individualized classic modes, 1300+ spirits to collect at the games launch, new boss fights to experience, and more
Was all this content new? No, but you are acting like bringing everyone back was this massive undertaking that caused Ultimate to be this bare bones game when it is the beefiest smash game to date with a short development time to boot. If you just use Ultimate as a base like they did for Smash Wii U previously, you have access to save so much time on resources. If they were able to add that much content coming from Smash Wii U, I think it is not out of the question they could easily have a noticeable amount of content in a Ultimate Deluxe.
Also, the whole issue with third party licensing seems to be overblown. All the companies in Smash rn are playing nice with Nintendo, so I do not see a scenario where a significant number of them do not play nice in the future. Sure, Konami might be erratic on a good day. Sure, Disney is evil. But Smash makes a lot of money. Smash Ultimate was the biggest fighting game of all time. It is one of the biggest fighting game series of all time. Money greases the wheels after all.