Its from the same developer that had a limited budget/resources that created DOAX3, and the cast of characters were chosen by a Voting Poll which results in half of Itagaki's Legacy Characters cut in half and having 3 new girls which are based on Japanese interest in Manga/Light Novels like Marie Rose (who would be My choice for the character I would root for her to win). The cut girls we've had so far were the ones that are higher than Rachel (first voting poll) & Lisa (second voting poll tied with Christie), so in the name of pattern recognition along with staff taking years to include the rest of cut DOA girls since their priorities are creating Brand New Girls, I would easily believe for NiCO & Mila to be the next girls unless DOAXVV Staff announces concept art or plan on included Bottom of Barrel Girls (for objective standpoint) like Lisa or Rachel.
The question for Youtube & Other Social Media Comments is are they Japanese? Since KT Western Branches decided not to make DOAX3 worldwide, along with the only people who were allowed to vote on their characters are Japanese Player Base. If there was more people within Japan that are talking about Rachel & Lisa, their big mistake was not partake in DOAX3 Voting Poll or 2nd Voting Poll resulting them to be less popular than Lei-Fang & Tina (who were later added in DOAXVV), Mila (who was behind Tina), & NiCO (2nd Voting Poll)
DOAXVV has every opportunity to include Rachel in time with NGIIB, but the question is if the staff going to follow it up during the moment to promote DOAXVV Players to some Ninja Gaiden content like Rachel for character and/or Swimsuits like Rachel's Fiend Costumes for everyone (like Kasumi, Marie, Honoka, Misaki, Luna, Kanna etc.).
I just go off by previous Voting Poll & New One from Top to Bottom, with no regards of devs changing things up like example Tekken 8 where there was Datamine for Fahkumram & Marduk which Season 1 wound up with Heihachi & Clive similar to Multiversus where when their cast got Datamine (like LeBrone, Rick, Morty, Gizmo & Stripe, Beetlejuice to name a few) winds up included as the character roster thanks to fellow Leakers/Dataminers. It may take years for devs to finally included another cut DOA girl.
While Rachel is attractive, thick, large bust, and has iconic outfits. But none of these reasons gave Rachel the advantage to not only beat Mila in numbers, but either would've been higher than Lei-Fang or Tina, or even better be included in DOAX3. Some of these points could easily be get beaten by Nyotengu (attractive), Sayuri (thick), Honoka (large bust), & Iconic Outfits (Marie Rose in her Devil Costume from DOAX3):
So from a Popularity standpoint, Rachel best points just won't be enough, or worst if there were more people that cared about Rachel either there wasn't enough votes (since you can pick 1 character) or didn't show up leading Rachel to failure in the DOAX space.
Despite Mila's own issues & losing popularity, there was enough people that voted for Mila over Rachel, Christie, & Lisa (bottom of the barrel, from objective standpoint), but not enough to be in DOAX3.
I wouldn't even count NA Players considering DOAX3/DOAXVV/VV Prism are not available for Worldwide Players, plus only Japanese Players had the say in the Voting Process so no one outside of Japan were going to count since its first Voting Poll. Unless KT are letting Foreign Players taking part in Japanese Surveys so they can express on what they want.
DOAXVV is mainly Number 1 on DMM Games Website couple of times in the Japanese servers, so I wouldn't go as far as saying Steam is very popular unless DMM Games has something that keep track of Players or who owns the game like Steam Charts or Playstation Trophies like this for example:
At this is has:
1,999 players right now,
2,489 24-hour peak, and
11,284 all-time peak 1.8 years ago
This easily beat DOA6 Numbers with
146 players right now,
185 24-hour peak, and
2,107 all-time peak 5.9 years ago at this time.
When it comes to hot takes, its a mild take since these are least popular characters which Mila is behind another least popular character Tina who was finally included in DOAXVV. While I do see your arguments as possible, but its up for the developers themselves to change things up abit (which DOAXVV doesn't do much in terms of the cut girls), Ninja Gaiden could easily be a change up which may or may not happen.
