honestly if we get an e3 newcomer (we totally will) i'd be genuinely shocked if it wasn't steve
basically the video game world stage, who else could they possibly show off to match the biggest game of the 2010s
No but seriously, I can see why Banjo might be revealed instead of Steve.
1) To really highlight that Nintendo and Microsoft love each other enough to start a family and make kids with each other.
2) They're still marketing Banjo merchandise and putting him on posters. It says a lot when the character isn't forgotten by the company. What it tells me is that even Microsoft knows how much Banjo means to its fans.
3) Did they really not learn from Nuts & Bolts. The fans are gonna ****ing riot if Banjo isn't in
4) It would also be a good way to announce a Rare Replay on Switch. After all, who's to say Microsoft approached Nintendo with the character? Smash is entirely a Nintendo thing, so what would be the best place to reveal Banjo? To a Nintendo fan, the people watching Nintendo's E3, this will mean a lot.
There's a lot of practicality going for Steve, but I don't think that's all a character has. There's something intentional going on, which isn't a real argument. It's just what I'm intuitively guessing at.