It's comical that people would criticize Sakurai of playing favorites, given that he cut Dedede from the roster twice in a row, that Kirby is considered one of the worst characters in Melee, that Meta Knight was nerfed to hell & back in Smash 4 (to the point of not efficiently being tournament-viable), and that none of "his characters" are top-tier in Smash 4 -- or, at least, it looks very likely that's the case right now.

Whiners. You just can't escape them.

…Which is one of the main reasons the Smash fandom is arguably one of the worst fandoms out there.