It’s kinda like this thread I saw on /v/ about Fire Emblem cuts...*shudders*...you have these fans talking about the characters as if they’re literally all the same and that relevance and sales numbers dictate who stays or who doesn’t.
As in, Marth is there because he’s Marth, but then cut Ike because his game sold poorly, cut Roy because “he’s a clone”, cut Corrin because “no one asked for them”, but then keep Chrom and Lucina because threatened popular.
That’s literally the dumbest thinking. Ike is one of the one unique in the game simply because he’s a heavy sword user. Roy doesn’t play anything like Marth or even Chrom. At one point I was someone who argued about sales, but those are bad and flawed arguments. There’s no valid system to compare it among the roster and it’s incredibly biased.
While I may be in the minority, a character like Edelgard, for example, would likely bring in something unique, and by the thought process of fans such as these, a character from Three Houses “deserves” a spot because it’s almost passing Awakening as the highest selling game in the series.
As I said, I would actually love Edelgard in Smash, but can understand why others wouldn’t want her. But she’s popular. She’s unique. She’s new. She’s potentially from the “highest selling” game of her franchise.
To some people, she’s an obvious pick. Idk, Smash fanbase opinions on cuts have never been anything but flawed imo.
Plus I’d argue 95% of all “most important”/ “most popular” picks are in Smash already. Characters still need gameplay to stand out among the whole.