>>538711857
All of the reasons you listed are correct. A fandom, especially these days, is almost entirely built on the characters and the love for them. A pretty good way to guarantee a game thrives is having a memorable and charming cast. See: Deadlock's success compared to how bad Concord flopped. There were a lot of problems with Concord but the biggest thing people complained about was how shitty the player characters looked and that none of them stood out or had any "oomph" to them. Meanwhile, Deadlock isn't even finished and people are already super invested in the characters because all of them are practically dripping with charisma. While SMT does do well on its own, a lot of people agree that the character writing suffers greatly because there really isn't a lot for the audience to work with. What do we actually know about, say, Yuzuru? He has a sick sister, his parents are dead, he has a watch from his father, and he's Tsukuyomi's Knowledge... That's kind of the gist of it. We don't typically get told information that would help us bond with him like his hobbies, his likes or dislikes, or really have any moments with him outside of purely plot-related things. Persona by comparison gives a ton of breathing room for you to spend time with your friends, doing stuff that doesn't entirely concern the main story, and generally just letting us get to know your party members and other NPCs by allowing you to talk to them a lot more. That's the stuff that teenagers in particular latch onto and go absolutely nuts for, and boom, you have a thriving fandom that draws in new people all of the time. Mainline SMT is more for older audiences that aren't that concerned with stuff like that, so even if a lot of people might be into SMT, the fandom seems much more quiet since there's not a lot to discuss without having to basically start making shit up.