^ very true. You don't only see more variety in Sm4sh character wise, but playsyle wise too. When I watch Melee all I see is high risk high reward game play. With the exception of the occasional zone-y Samus or Defensive space animal, everyone is super gimmicky combo characters who have very basic combo strings that are trickier to perform then they are to enjoyable to watch for me.
From what I have seen watching Melee you have the following groups of characters:
The characters everyone mains or think they are good with when they want to be a try hard;
Fox, Falco, Marth, and Shiek.
Characters who are secretly as good but hardly anyone uses;
Ice Climbers, Peach, Jigglypuff.
Characters that aren't as good but you do see people use every so often;
Captain Falcon, Samus, Luigi, Mario.
The characters who suck but casuals think they are good with and often times aren't;
Ganondorf, Roy, Mewtwo.
No one knows how this is a thing;
AmsA's Yoshi.
I do get the hype behind Melee however, it is he same as Tekken 3, Street Fighter 3, MvC2, and Halo 2. Games that are old and have newer cleaner iterations of, but people like for the shenanigan gameplay that fans have dubbed "advanced techniques" that often times takes a lot of practice to master. As well as 0 input lag leading to some intense play.
The games are also poorly balanced, but people don't always watch the variety of in game characters, but for the variety of characters playing the game. And how players use the same exact tools everyone else has and uses in their own subtle but unique ways.
In the end though, none of this is for me. I prefer games that have a bit more polish that often bring a lot more variety to the game that isn't artificially put in by the fans. I don't know how to explain it right now, but I might later when I gather my words.