You definitely didn’t come across as obnoxious or anything, so no worries. I feel the same way about popularity, so for example, it doesn’t bother me that I have some very popular villagers like Raymond and some very unpopular ones like Jacob and Penelope. My original post wasn’t directed at you specifically; it was more that your post reminded me of something that I’ve been wanting to say for a while. I also thought I could help you learn a little bit about general villager popularity within the fandom.
I totally understand wanting to see different villagers because sometimes it does feel like the only villager discourse is about the Tier 1 superstars you see in every town. I too like to see the more offbeat/wild card picks people have in their towns because those are the ones that better show each person’s individuality.
I also didn’t mean to belittle your villager preferences, so hopefully you didn’t take it like that. The ones you listed are all great villagers, even Gaston who many people think is ugly/bad (which I disagree with). As for the cats specifically, they’re popular for a reason. The vast majority are very cute (although some of my favorites like Moe and Stinky tend to get left in the dust). At the end of the day, it’s all personal preference and it’s no surprise that people tend to like the cutesy villager designs in this game about befriending anthropomorphic animals.