What is dumb about Project M is if they're trying to create Melee exactly but with brawl characters, why don't they just get a programmer and an artist and someone who understands fighter balance and just mod a melee game to add characters because then they can HAVE melee with new and more characters and not be limited to brawl, believe it or not it'd be less work too.
Considering we have a team of some of the most capable smash moders ever assembled, if we could do something like that we already would have.
I don't really know where you pulled that assessment about it being 'easier to add characters to Melee' from, and if you really believe that I'd like to see you try, no offense.
The aim of the project is to replicate the overall engine as closely as possible, but add more character buffs and depth roughly the further you go down the Melee tier list. That is, top / high would play pretty similar, but the lower cast will attain new levels of viability.
And we have fundamentally altered the way this engine works many times over. If
anything, I would say that the game looks (smells?) like crap on the exterior (the camera, some player models, etc), but the function of the game has been steadily improving towards our goal.
If anyone isn't completely happy with the current progress of our alpha, instead of complaining about it I encourage you to apply to join the PMBR and help make sure it gets done to your satisfaction.
Cheers.
Edit: Also, ESAM is running a free tourney of the PM Alpha later today (Saturday).