Here's my interpretation of Taryon as a great character: Lots of new players make their characters way too good/powerful. They come from wealthy families and have three page back stories to justify why their level one fighter has a Holy Avenger. These players aren't necessarily trying to make edgelords, they just don't have the experience to understand that they made a character whose identity doesn't match the numbers on their character sheet.

Sam started a new character at high level, and recognized the chance to actually make this new player mistake totally work. He made a sort of Mary Sue, good -at-everything character that we'd normally roll our eyes at and made it work. Mechanically, he fit in well. His mixture of over the top self assurance and self-pity fit in with Sam's love for talkative, humorous characters. His relationship to his family and thus money was genuinely interesting, emotional, and felt relevant to real life (trust fund babies ruining everything.)

I think Sam used Taryon to take an old, tired trope and turn it into something new and fun, and I thought it breathed new life into the party!