I find it really frustrating how much Nintendo continually squanders the character potential of the Mario franchise so I think I'm gonna avoid dressing this opinion up in a joke. If these weird, half "lazy" half out-of-left-field character choices are supposed to be some sort of running gag as people make it out to be, then I think it's a really low-effort and self-unaware one and we shouldn't be celebrating this mediocrity. This might be a cold take, but I don't know how seriously people take it these days. There are those who fashion a superiority complex over being okay with disappointing characters and this attitude seems to control a lot of fan discourse.