I mean I'd wager Sakurai still clearly has preferences for his own stuff but that's fine to an extent isn't it? Shimomura never used Meta Knight, doubled up on Animal Buddies and then doubled up on Ado (or if they're not the same person, then he doubled up on "artist girl character"). Kumazaki's obviously the most willing to play with history but even then you see Magolor (the most notable character from the first original Kirby game he directed) more than most others.

It's not like he's being strangely stingy with things like he was with a lot of Smash stuff, he's clearly willing to experiment with the stuff that isn't his and even incorporating a lot of minor details that a surface level inclusion wouldn't touch (expanding on Gooey's Dark Matter connection, making Magolor's ability and stats literally centered around letting people clear a path for you and then betraying them at the end of a race, referential color swaps). Some people thought he wouldn't even be in the game for mainly being prominent post-Sakurai but literally the very first bit of gameplay he showed off was him showcasing that he included Bandana Dee as one of the main four of the series.

It's not full on Star Allies "EVERYONE GETS PANDERED TO!!!!! WE PUT BROBOT IN THIS FUCKIN GAME" but I don't think it's really even important for every director to have that kind of vision. He's clearly willing to play ball and I think that's fine