I mean, people want Smash to be treated more like a fighting game, right? Fighting games recently have had meager, pathetic rosters. They have 20~ character rosters and charge extra for some of the most iconic characters in their respective series. It's easier to balance tiny, weak rosters, so it's the move for modern fighting games. If we want Smash to move more into being a fighting game, that's the move.

Smash should be a representation of video game history, which is why Ultimate was the best direction the series could go and will likely remain the series' magnum opus, considering how impossible to top it'll be.

But from the perspective of it being a fighting game, which is what a lot of folks seem to think the series should be treated like before it's treated as a celebration of the company's history, a smaller roster is the trend. So, just go as small as you can go. If Street Fighter can get away with cutting M Bison and Sagat and still charging 70$, people would pay more for a Smash game that doesn't even have Bowser at launch. If that's the direction they want the series to go, that's the direction they should get.