The thing though is a tier list is not designed to force players into picking the very best, it's more so a reference point based on tournament results. It has no bearing on stuff outside of it. The problem comes into play where people use the tier lists in outside contexts, or if the game is truely that unbalanced you need it for the sake of survival. For the latter, it's unhealthy because it causes the metagame to become stagnant and die off, which is a easily made mistake for developers that aren't careful.
I will however say that this time around I have more confidence that there will be a healthier selection of both stages and characters, which alone gets me more excited.
I know. It's just many players, sometimes the egotistical ones I come across with from different sites (AIB mostly) have been likely to "sellout" to the higher ups, especially if they lose or if the character they supposedly like sucked (I understand the 2nd part to an extent). Sure, I'm aware of this boring "play to win" mindset, but sometimes I just got issues with common gamer egos, arrogance, and elitism... though I know I have a bit of ego myself, it isn't as chaotic as many others I've seen before. It reminds me of the Brawl times, with all the sellouts to MK, Snake, etc..., whether they're losing or start with them right away, you know what I mean.
Anyways, I'm more confident about the game due to it looking more balanced, but that doesn't mean that there won't be some kinda trouble that would irritate me from the same kinds of ppl I mentioned before. We'll see though. The game's still too young, and let's not forget Nintendo can patch things now, so things are looking up.