He's absolutely right: By making characters exclusive, you hold part of the metagame hostage.
Why? Because when you add anything into a competitive game, you introduce more variability and complexity into its metagame. You introduce the potential for change in the metagame.
Worst case scenario: if any of those characters turned out as being dominant, then it becomes a pay-2-win scenario, which isn't legitimately competitive to say the least.
The only way to ensure an even playing field is to include all the characters.
(And please don't say "Oh, they'll balance it, so it doesn't matter". It does matter, quite a lot actually. Fighting games are among the most difficult games to balance for all manner of reasons; it might take a long time for someone to actually find the most mathematically broken combo or interaction. They are quite complicated to begin with, and the level of player scrutiny goes down to the frame; players that are looking for the Instant-Win Combo with a fine tooth comb.
I cannot think of a single fighting game that was balanced entirely; where all characters are viable picks and counters to other characters. It almost always comes down to a small handful of movesets with the most combos and cancels.)
Why? Because when you add anything into a competitive game, you introduce more variability and complexity into its metagame. You introduce the potential for change in the metagame.
Worst case scenario: if any of those characters turned out as being dominant, then it becomes a pay-2-win scenario, which isn't legitimately competitive to say the least.
The only way to ensure an even playing field is to include all the characters.
(And please don't say "Oh, they'll balance it, so it doesn't matter". It does matter, quite a lot actually. Fighting games are among the most difficult games to balance for all manner of reasons; it might take a long time for someone to actually find the most mathematically broken combo or interaction. They are quite complicated to begin with, and the level of player scrutiny goes down to the frame; players that are looking for the Instant-Win Combo with a fine tooth comb.
I cannot think of a single fighting game that was balanced entirely; where all characters are viable picks and counters to other characters. It almost always comes down to a small handful of movesets with the most combos and cancels.)