Wow, you are so ********!
This is what it means - "not all important characters get in"
What is so hard to ****ing understand you blind SOB?
Fun fact: It means what it ****ing says. NOT ALL IMPORTANT CHARACTERS GET IN. There are LOTS of important characters in the Nintendo universe, so why the Hell is Claus so special? Why not Andy from Advance Wars, the most well-known character in this 20 year old Advance Wars series? Or Lolo, the star of Adventures of Lolo, a nine game series, which Sakurai enjoys very much? Or Little Mac, star of one of the favorite NES games? Christ, are you that thick that you'd completely ignore every single statement I ever say? It's one thing to be important, it's another thing to be picked by Sakurai FOR the importance you hold. Other characters hold importance, and maybe he just said "you know what? I think these guys should get in over these guys, despite their importance." Christ.
Geno has too many legal issues to go through to be worth it, not even comparable notability to Snake or Sonic, Doesn't even begin to be known in Europe, where SMRPG never was released, etc. And add on top of that K. Rool, in a dwindling series, a series whose popularity has died in Japan, selling an acceptable amount, but not enough to get three reps! It was once popular, now it somehow started sucking.
Right, I guess Melee never happened - Ridley, Wario, Meta Knight, King Dedede, Diddy Kong, Pit, etc. didn't make it. Oh, wait, Sakurai makes his own decisions, and not every character that has a large fan base makes it in. Maybe he looked at the sales of the last five released Metroid games in Japan and said that it wasn't important enough? If Metroid was significant enough to Sakurai, enough to make him add three reps (because you may not want to admit it, but ZSS takes up as much effort and time to make as Ridley would), then it would have been significant enough to add Ridley in Melee in the first place - you know, when the series was making its triumphant comeback?
...See, fun idea - let's not say that the main villain is as likely as the main character, kay?
You did so much research that you explained away the fact that Claus and Mewtwo weren't shown to be playable in that video, even though it showed Lucario, Jigglypuff, and Ness.
Okay, moron, so here's the low-down - I don't give half a **** about popularity. At this point, Claus, Mewtwo, Ridley, etc. only have support because people cling desperately to them sitll having a chance.
They have a very small chance. I will be very surprised if they make it in.
The fact of the matter is that your fanboy crushes on these characters influences your opinion of their likelihood. We aren't getting anymore third parties, Krystal's out, K. Rool's chances are diminished, Geno's relatively unknown in Australia, Africa, and Europe, etc.
The fact of the matter is that Mewtwo could only get in if this video turned out to be a fake. And it probably isn't. If they would show a brand new character revelation, they wouldn't be too shy to hide a veteran revelation.