I am going to throw my opinion about the dlc fighters out there. Honestly, Marie Rose is amazing. She has unique fighting style and she is fun to use. Nyotengu was a smart move because only a small handful of fans would have purchased Tengu while Nyotengu is very well liked and is even more fun to play than Tengu was. While Honoka may seem lazy, every fighting game has a Honoka, but in my opinion, Honoka has the best execution out of all of the characters that play like her, and I am including Khameleon from MK in that category. Honoka has easily become one of my top favorites to use. I was originally disappointed about getting another Kasumi clone, but after playing as Phase-4, I would much rather have Phase-4 over Kasumi in every game. The major disappointment was Raidou. He is boring. You can tell they spent less time working on him than the did these new female fighters. He is bland.
So with the dlc fighters, I do think they tried. They may not be the most original fighters, but their execution is great. The only one who really isn't great is Raidou.
I sort of agree and disagree with this and I'll post my own thoughts since my original died like...years ago with the Casual Thread died:
Marie Rose is easily the most original DLC character and I can see why most people are upset that the rest of the DLC characters didn't follow in Marie's footsteps(either being clones with a few different variables or old character returning). It doesn't help that she as a personality and likeness you can see why she has a huge fanbase in Japan and a thriving fanbase everywhere else. Not to mention her battle style is pretty nice too.
Past your "comment" on wanted Phase-4 over Kasumi(I WILL WORDS WITH THEE!), her fighting style is exactly how I imagined Kasumi's and honestly...I think it's how Monty Oum seen it in Dead Fantasy(being able to spam teleports and use them fluently in a fight).
Nyotengu...well it should be obvious that someone is damn near close to overtaking Kasumi as my overall favorite character in DOA...which is hilarious since I hated Bankotsubo with a vengeance. Maybe it's the fact that she's overly hammy just like a Tengu or the fact she is pretty much Morrigan Aensland as a Tengu(who I also like) or even the fact that her story potential is actually pretty good(I don't really believe she is evil because nothing points to that direction and even her bio reasons conflict with Bankotsubo himself as he killed the Clan Leader which lead to him fleeing the Tengu and into the Human World). I feel like I'm more infatuated with the character herself than the gameplay lol.
Raidou is pretty beast and it's a damn shame people don't play him more. But I think that's mainly because him and Honoka is still too new and people are testing them out.
And I agree with your overall sentiments with Honoka. She is easily one of the better done mimics in games since she works by incorporating everyone's moves into her repertoire without being something from SC(basically Necrid without the brokeness). And her story potential isn't that bad either, especially if Honoka truly does have family ties with Raidou and Ayane(which seems hella likely since they are her only other full tag interactables other than Marie.