So, I think because of sticker star craziness, I completely forgot the point I was making earlier: Paper Mario is recognized as not the same mario.
Remember that the series rep got talked for his case a lot and now, we hae the answer. First, it obviously got more rep, that is a big improvment on brawl with the stage and the music (Rogueport yay!). That alone sows that the series is quite important enough to get there. I still want to remind that there's a lot of characters fans that would give a lot to get a stage and even more for a stage repping 3 games out of all 4 (PM64 got repped with the whale as random hazards). So, that may actually be a good sign for the series future.
Where it gets really interesting is the trophy description. In brawl, it was basically like the copy paste of SPM...but for just the playable characters. Every other trophies was mostly just referencing the game and most was SPM, the latest game as brawl came out. Here we do see only sticker star (and for some reasons, a SPM mention on a non Paper Mario trophy), but did anyone paid attention to how they name Paper Mario?
Here's Paper Luigi description:
Paper Luigi is Paper Mario's younger brother. He shows up from time to time during Paper Mario's quest for the Royal Stickers, but he doesn't stick around for long. Such a modest guy... I wonder what he's getting up to now!
I want you to look what I underlined...
Did they just mentioned Paper Mario instead of just Mario?
That might look normal, but it actually is telling something else. See, it shows that Paper Mario would be his own character and so, they don't consider him just being the exact same Mario, in paper. This was never present in brawl and in fact, it sounded more like he was the same mario, but let's just say it was never clear. Here, it is clear twice in the same description.
But wait, that's not all. Here;s his description:
The paper-thin Mario from the Paper Mario series recently quested for the wish-granting Royal Stickers. These magic stickers are for more than just collecting, though. Mario can use them to change his paper world, and nothing helps him in battle more than a sticker!
Now, it might sound to contradict what I said, but it does the opposite.
I said he wouldn't JUST be mario in paper form. Being JUST that implies he's perceived as not even different in identity. Here, let me restate the description with some underlining:
The paper-thin Mario from the Paper Mario series recently quested for the wish-granting Royal Stickers. These magic stickers are for more than just collecting, though. Mario can use them to change his paper world, and nothing helps him in battle more than a sticker!
They did mentioned Mario, but here;s the thing: they already made the context for Paper Mario and not mario. They said the Paper Mario SERIES. That is really revelating and corelating to Paper Luigi description being that mario is NOT THE SAME EXACTLY as Paper Mario. They are viewed like 2 separate identity even tough he;s viewed like A mario, he's just viewed like he had his own series that the normal mario would not have. As for the series symbol, it's confusing: he's not the same as maio, but he's viewed to be apart on his own while still being in the mario spectrum which would explain the stage being a mario rep. The second is just pushing it even further: not only he has his own identity, his own series, but also his own world.
I think it's more than enough to say that he;s not THE mario but A mario. It;s completely different and it means that by putting mario and Paper Mario apart, it shows that they acknowledged the series on its own. They linked the series from the mario spectrum instead of annexing it to the standard series.
Those descriptions crudhes the brawl rep and now, the another mario argument is no longer relevant because it's now viewed as a different mario and not the same character. It;s more of he was based on Mario, but isn't mario himself.
Wow, this was confusing to explain, but you should get that I'm happy he's perceived like this now. This might just be an indication Sakurai considered him (imo, it's likely with the stage honestly, animal crossing got a series and no character in brawl...just that was suspicious in my eyes and it was because villager was considered).