Totally agree. Also since we're on the subject, are you that guy from AP, who kept a Ridley avatar for years? I guessed as much from your name and avatar.
From what I've seen, on one hand Smash fans speculate too much around what Sakurai says and too little around what he actually DOES, especially when it's been proven he likes to troll and that what he says isn't gonna be true forever or at all. On the other hand, part of the speculation is based on completely baseless assumptions and arbitrary assertions, devoid of any logical basis.
He said Ridley's big. Yet Olimar has been made bigger to make the cut; it's mindboggling how many are fixated with this statement. He didn't even say he would never get in, while he did say Villager wouldn't work: guess what? Now Villager's working just fine. Words don't matter, things change.
Searching a pattern in roster additions may be useful, but is not hard proof. There are many things that could change Sakurai's modus operandi during the development of the game, even if he really folowed a pattern. Talking about being popular only in the west, or only in the east, being too retro or too new, being from an obscure series or a series with low sales. None of those things have stopped Sakurai thus far, IMO it's just that we rationalize each addition, creating certain patterns ourselves.
