I love roster speculation, so I'll throw this out there.

















Assuming that, if I'm Sakurai (but still of my own opinions), then I'm aware of everything he's aware of, and have all the same ideas for characters running around my brain (aka Mr. Game & Watch.. cause I probably wouldn't have thought of him myself, but definitely think he should 100% be there).
I cut


, in favor of

.
I figure having Ganondorf with a true moveset and having the complete triforce characters playable is more important than having Sheik, even if she's super cool. I'm honestly surprised that Sakurai picked her and had Ganondorf be the last minute addition.. although I suppose at that point, Ganondorf wasn't the main villain of the series, in his humanoid form, anyway.
As far as adding Olimar goes.. I figure it's about 1 for 1 with adding a new series needing a stage, music, etc., to replace the Ice Climbers. I like the Ice Climbers but they never would've been my pick, even if they are unique. Olimar would be just as unique, and if we're throwing in Roy as a bit of advertisement, why not Olimar for his upcoming game, too... and this character was created by Miyamoto.
At the time of Melee's development, Mew was one of the most requested characters, up there with Mewtwo, on Sakurai's polls. It's often neglected how important he is to the series, too. Mew's inclusion in the original games as a gag by the developer's spawned a crazy amount of fan attention and sales for the game, as well as the distribution tradition that continues to this day. I put him in there with his own moveset.
I guess that leaves me with an extra spot for a clone.. so if I had to pick one, I'd put Wario as a Mario clone, but I'm in agreement with Sakurai that that just wouldn't have seemed right. So, oh well.. no need. More development time for other things, such as a Fire Emblem stage.
That leaves only two clone characters, Falco and Roy. Falco stays in because of popularity, and Roy stays because he helps open the door for Fire Emblem in the West. Diddy Kong or Ridley or Dedede would be great, too, but Pokemon is Nintendo's shining star, here.. so I would give the attention to it.