I wasn't denying the existence of clones--I'm just saying they don't merit the amount of complaining that they get. Believe it or not, people do actually like playing as these particular characters--I'm hardly a tourney player (or should I say I'm not one in any sort of way), but I mained Dr. Mario in Melee and did not at all like playing as Mario. To me clone complaining reeks of selfish individuals who want movesets removed for no better reason other than they offend their sensibilities.
I don't see how Luigi is so much more different from his source than Lucas and Wolf are--I think you need to go back and actually compare them. Outside of their final smashes (which are an incredibly small part of the overall moveset), they really don't play anything remotely like Ness and Fox--pretty much none of their regular attacks look or function anything like the regular attacks of their respective "host" and their special moves are split between a few that are fundamentally similar and those that are only superficially similar (akin to Luigi?!). Don't forget how similar Luigi was in the first Smash, enough to make a Melee clone blush. It took a few games for him to find his way. Falco and Ganondorf are both definitely on their way there as well (Ganondorf not even sharing a Final Smash).
There's more to each character than a few presses of the special move button. To even claim that a character like Wolf or Lucas isn't even close to being like Luigi just sounds like you don't actually play as the characters.
Perhaps I misunderstood your particular post then, but I've seen people in this and other threads denying the existence of clones. I think that's absurd and was what I trying to argue in my post.
Anyway, I'm not bothered by clones and I think it worked really well for Dr. Mario and Toon Link, for example. Reskins like that are cool and I'd accept more in the same vein. Falco, Wolf, Lucas and Ganondorf are actual separate characters from their inspirations, though, so I'd expect them to be more creative in movesets. For instance, these characters B specials may all have different properties from their counterparts, but they all serve similar purposes. Can't you agree that, for instance, Lucas B specials are all much more to similar in general purpose to Ness ones than Luigi's to Mario's?
You do have a good point that Luigi was a clone in Smash 64 and only got be its own true character in Brawl. Hopefully the same will happen with these other characters in Smash 4.
Anyway, I'm not against clones and do think Brawl made them much more differentiated than before. I just can not get the point that some people deny that they still exist.
This arguement sounds like me arguing with a metal-head that death metal and black metal are basically the same thing and they trying to raise the smallest of details to differentiate the genres.