"So, as you know, I do have an informal source within Nintendo, call him 'DAVE THROAT,' and he, or she or it or nebulous shadow creature, first reached out to us at E3 2015, when we were out at E3 for the first time, and has since made contact every now and again. Did not get anything from Dave Throat about K. Rool in Smash, so I was completely taken aback by this, but I did get contacted by Dave Throat today [August 8], and basically, just a brief little, I guess, summary of how this came to be, K. Rool in Smash.
I'm not going to read it verbatim, but basically, so, regardless of the ballot, the Smash Ballot back in 2014 [2015], K. Rool was never going to be in the game then. They basically were using the Smash Ballot as, basically to get the fans to feel like they had some input, to gauge what the fans actually wanted, but actually they were more predictive about what they thought the fans wanted. So things like Bayonetta were already in the works before the Smash Ballot was finalized. And so that's why they had to do such loose justification with Bayonetta's reveal and say 'Oh, she was near the top of the list in Europe or somewhere, I dunno.'
They were completely taken aback by the amount of support K. Rool got, completely blew them away. They had no idea that the character had any popularity. And that's why we got the Mii costume in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS, that was more of a late, last-minute eleventh hour consolation prize, as a little nod saying 'K. Rool, we had no idea, this is the best we can give you right now. There you go.' But that's why we got K. Rool in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It was the Kremling Kampaigners, it was the fans, it was everybody listening to this that filled out that goddamn ballot, who made campaign and petition and made yourself vocally heard. It was because of you."
*brief filler in which Hyle says how awesome he thinks that is*
"And also, there have been other parties within Nintendo that have wanted to bring K. Rool back before this, but people have shut them down before this point, and apparently now that is going to change."
So yeah, this is not to say K. Rool WON the ballot, as has been spread as misinformation in some circles, but his final performance was extraordinary enough to send reverberations through Nintendo, most importantly -apparently- including Nintendo of Japan.
To shed further light, per Hyle, per his sources (Mr. Throat or otherwise), K. Rool's hiatus boiled down to "internal apathy and factional disagreements." I have since been able to independently confirm through two sources that one of the parties that wanted to bring back K. Rool sooner was none other than Retro Studios. They were interested in putting K. Rool in the Tropical Freeze Switch port in some capacity, but were denied with no reasoning given. This reportedly was because after the ballot Sakurai had personally called dibs on reviving the character himself.
