That was just an example of the unpleasable fanbase Sonic has, they complain about tons of crap. I think they complained about the Knuckles/Shadow Rumors in Unleashed. (Speaking of which, why always those two? I mean, I know they're popular, but at least make rumors up about other characters. Those sound more belivable than claiming that Knuckles AND Shadow have cameos in all the ones they aren't in.)
As soon as 12 year olds/Animu-tards hit the fanbase, you pretty much went for the whole "Goku, Piccolo, and Gohan" shtick. After a few flawed games the fandom became unpleasable from there, and such you'll see mostly female fans who adore the CosmoxTails pairing.
I'm getting ahead of myself here: The fanbase is just too damn unpleaseable. Sega is TRYING to go back to the "retro" that everyone wants and now they want characters playable again so they can have thier little fan pairings/mary sues? Whaatt thhhee ffuucck?