Typing this out was fun.
"So let me get this straight.
Due to;
Roy, Lucina, Chrom, Daisy, Dark Samus, Pichu, Richter, Young Link, Dr. Mario and Dark Pit, i.e 10 echo characters (4 brought over due to the everyone' is here stuff. Despite this some are different enough to be their own characters)
The effort put into;
Mario, Peach, Luigi, Bowser, Ganon, Link, Toon Link, Zelda, Sheik, Cloud, Bayonetta, Wario, Pikachu, Mewtwo, Pokemon Trainer (Charizard, Ivysaur and Squirtle), Lucario, Jigglypuff, Greninja, King K. Rool, Inkling, DK, Diddy Kong, Samus, Simon, Marth, Corrin, Ike, Robin, Rosalina, Wii Fit Trainer, Duck Hunt, Mii's (Fighter, Gunner and Brawler), Pit, Palutena, Meta Knight, Dedede, Ridley, ZS Samus, Ness, Lucas, Sonic, Pac-Man, Megaman, Snake, R.O.B, G&w, Fox, Falco, Wolf, Lil Mac, Shulk, Captain Falcon, Bowser Jr., Kirby, Ryu, Olimar and Villager, i.e 61 characters in total no longer matters?
Let's compare some things.
Capcom: SFV where you had to pay for most the roster.
34 "unique" characters. This includes Regular Ryu, Blonde Ryu (Ken), Dark Ryu (Akuma) and Girl Ryu (Sakura). 18 of these characters were DLC. Meaning the base game was only 16 characters
Arc Sys: Love these guys, I truly do, but
Blazblue Cross Tag full Roster (not to mention that a good deal required payment after the fact): 40 unique characters.
Dragon Ball FighterZ: Including DLC, 30 Unique Characters. 6 of these were DLC. This means the base game theoretically was to be 22 characters.
Now for Namco's Tekken: Including DLC we have a whopping 43 Unique characters. However, 23 of those characters were not available at base release. Meaning the starting roster was in fact only 20.
Now let's go back to Smash Ultimate. We have at least 61 Unique Characters + like 10 clones. 71 characters, at BASE game. I truly hope I don't have to go through the number of songs and stages each series I listed above. To list Smash Ultimate, we have 103 stages, multiple different game modes + a Mode that hasn't been detailed to us, Over 800 tracks, etc. All of this is in the base game. I'm sorry to say, objectively Sakurai has put a shitload of work in this game. And compared to the companies you listed above, a lot of their expanisive rosters came at the price of DLC. And yet they still do not have the amount of unique characters that base Smash Ultimate has. Even if you wanted to cut off Lucas, Toon Link, Falco AND even Ganon as semi clones, that is still 57 Unique characters + everything I mentioned above. I think Sakurai can more than comfortably decide to expand the roster with some Echoes and Semi Echoes in order to get some popular and requested characters like Chrom and Dark Samus in. Should I mention that the entire Roster hasn't been revealed yet? So the base game number is still increasing.
You can call me a defender, but I have plenty of reasoning and evidence to support my claim and my position on this matter."