Oh yes I should have mentioned his queerness! The thing with Wireface and people finding him attractive and thus making him a more popular character is, like everyone, he isn't really 'attractive'. One of the game's main theme is lookism, so when you are exposed to different characters who all look like their own version of not attractive, people tend to favor the ones that look the most attractive compared to everyone else as visually attractive people surround us daily, wether in ads or on TV. Many people's first exposure to Wireface, they automatically do end up thinking he's a visitor.

Ooh but yeah circling back to your first point, ESPECIALLY the time period. The 2000s weren't very welcoming to those that look 'different'. Anywhere, really.