Unsurprisingly Rosie and O'Hare are two of my favorite villagers, but I was sad to see Annalise so low on the list, she is a lovely villager if you give her the time and really quite sweet with her pink mane!
Tier 1:
Rosie
Tier 3:
O'Hare
Tier 4:
Poncho
Tier 5:
Annalise
Ozzie
Mott
Avery
Canberra
Tipper
Tier 1: Fauna
Tier 2: Erik
Tier 3: Bianca
Tier 4: Olivia, Static, Jacques, Frita
Tier 5: Penelope, Henry
(I'm not including Boone because he just moved permanently to my boyfriend's town)
Popularity doesn't effect my perception of villagers at all. Fauna was my favorite from the beginning before I even knew she was popular (she was in my original 5), and Penelope is also one of my very favorites. Her picture on the wiki isn't great, but in-game she is sooo cute! When I saw her in my campsite I snatched her up. Henry is also beloved and really I just love all of my villagers. The only one of my villagers I wanted before I got him was Erik, and I didn't trade for him online. My boyfriend got him in his campsite shortly before I got Boone so we decided to trade.
I can see why the top villagers are popular, but I feel like not enough people give tier 5 villagers a chance. I saw on another thread that someone actually hates all the tier 5 villagers! There are so many I find that hard to even believe. Just because they are tier 5 doesn't mean they're not great, and even the least popular villagers are loved by somebody. Heck, I really dislike Jambette as most do (can't stand those lips), but I read once that someone liked her because they pretended she was a sassy black woman, which I find hilarious.