Tripping was a response, you could say; an attempt to make the game more party-like after the competitive scene of Melee made maneuverability their [sonic slicer] with wavedashing. Of course, they didn't think it through enough about it being an extreme on the opposite side of the spectrum, nor allow players to disable it normally, so everyone - casual and hardcore - hated it. It's like if you were in first place in a racing game and you took a sharp drift, only for your vehicle to inexplicably spinout randomly for no fault of your own, costing you the race. Even Mario Kart 64, which had you spinout for trying to snake, wasn't random about it.