Generic mooks don't belong in the roster? I really hope these same people rate Toad lower than 10% as well despite him and Bandana Waddle Dee being in almost exactly the same position.
The fact that Mario is the biggest selling video game series,
ever, is perhaps
relevant here.
Also, tomorrow we're rating Captain Toad rather than "Toad". Who has had his own game. And who is getting a Switch "deluxe" port of that game. And Toad has a bit more importance to Mario than Waddle Dees do to Kirby, I would think, as well as being far more famous due to Mario being massive compared to Kirby. Similarly, Toad has far more playable appearances than Bandana Dee just accounting for Mario spin-offs.
Don't worry, I won't be rating Captain Toad particularly high, but calling their positions almost exactly the same is a huge exaggeration.
I'm going to strongly disagree here. He isn't just fourth character for sake of fourth, he's fan favourite and popular choice in his own right.
I'm not really sure what the evidence is for that, outside of SmashBoards and Smash community polls. Smash Wii U only sold 5 million, yet SmashBoards represents a small fraction of the audience for even just Smash Wii U.
The most recent game even acknowledges this sayimg he deserves a prize for his stellar appearances in the Kirby series
This is a bit like "My mom says I'm very handsome."
We can play the "it doesn't deserve reps" card but unlike a certain series that shouldn't be named, Kirby actually isn't a niche series and is one of Nintendo's greatest.
What makes a series "deserve" reps? There's clearly a connection to sales figures, but I'd probably also say that the threshold is a little higher for a series that already has representatives.
Both DK and Zelda both have significantly more sales than Kirby (over 2x the sales), are more recognizable, and such... Zelda is more critically acclaimed. Yet they did not get new reps in Smash 4, while Fire Emblem got three newcomers.
It can't just be that you like the series. I like Metroid, but I don't have a lot of hope for it getting another character. It apparently "deserves" just two versions of Samus despite the many reasons it might "deserve" better.
Part of this is I don't think we're getting a lot of newcomers. They're not adding a new character for every series. And there isn't any reason to be near certain Kirby's getting Bandana Dee unless you think Zelda and DK are basically assured of new characters as well. If there's reason to think the roster is getting a dozen+ newcomers after E3, I'd be more generous with all my ratings.
FE having 7 reps really bugs me. Sure, they have a large pool to choose from, but sooner or later, by that argument's logic, this'll be FE Vs. Pokémon Ft. Smash Bros. characters.
Pichu, Squirtle and Ivysaur are gone, and Roy was cut once before. I suspect they won't be the last cut characters from Pokemon or Fire Emblem for precisely the reason you say. I think they're more likely to get new characters but also more likely to get cuts.