People like melee because it's simple and clean and sort of balanced but not really since everyone plays the same characters. Final smashes can be banned. And fun fact, final smashes were planned to be in smash 1, and 8 player smash was planned in melee.
jesus christ if you don't know anything stfu
Characters played by at least 1 prominent smash pro
Fox, Falco, Marth, Sheik, Jigglypuff, Peach, Captain Falcon, Pikachu, Samus, Luigi, Mario, Young Link, Link, Yoshi, Bowser
There's probably a doctor mario main out there I'm forgetting, but the most prominent main switched to sheik a while ago. Anyways, the list I just posted is more than half of the cast of the game, even when including sheik and zelda as completely separate characters.
Here is why people love melee:
1. It's fast. This is a smash 4 set from apex:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2HEeP4HUVMThis is a melee set from apex:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv74JXJBFwkgo ahead and tell me there is no difference, or that endless campfests are somehow more interesting than melee's fast and nuanced gameplay
2. Movement options
In melee you can dash dance, wavedash, ledgedash and hax dash
The first two add amazing neutral game options to out space and trick/punish your opponent, neither of which are in smash 4. The last two add sick cool options for getting off the ledge. In smash 4 they are removed, meaning your only options are normal get up, get up attack or roll. yawn
watch this video, you can do exactly none of it in smash 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twqSNmMYjRc3. Combos
Low hitstun, high knockback and infinite air dodging kills at least 95% of all combos in smash 4 resulting in hella boring campfests in which nothing happens. Maybe you're just salty that someone zero to deathed you in melee, but maybe you should just get better
4. The dumbass shield mechanics in smash 4 promote hella camping
Shield rolling is unpunishable in 99% of all situations and the shield recovers super hella fast, which rewards super campy and boring play. Melee's shield has a longer time to put down, spot dodges and shield rolls are way more punishable, which is why you don't see ANY melee matches with someone just shield rolling around like an idiot
The two things smash 4 tried to do that were good:
1. girl marth
2. custom moves
however, both failed and in the case of lucina it was a miserable failure
smash 4 is boring because there are extremely few ways a better player can show his or her skill over a lesser player because it's such an easy game to play that rewards extremely boring and defensive play