People are misinterpreting what "While you're at it, get rid of Cloud, and maybe even Mario" means or certainly what a lot of the voters will have viewed it to mean.
I don't take it as a vote for literally removing those 3 guys, more of a vote at how futile such a process would be. If you remove Link, it'll create another Link that'll have to be removed, after which we'll have a 3rd Link. There'll always be a dominant force unless you remove all of the elite characters. Link isn't the sole problem, the very fact that we've had a seldomly touched noble nine structure for nearly 10 years is more the issue at hand. Popularity isn't fluctuating enough and the guys at the top are maintaining their position over time.
Taking one, two or three of them out won't change anything. Taking all of them out will just leave us with proxys for them all dominating the contest. The Ganons and the Vincents of this world will mop up the competition instead. There's good evidence of the proxy voting factor of tournament finals devoid of Link by the Zelda and Ganon overperformances in the female/villains brackets.
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Smurf , The Cream of Sonic Fanboyism