umm Kirby does have his own stage. Green Greens from melee.
And I've been a smash fan since the beginning and I sort of understand where you're coming from OP.
I didn't think melee had that many unnecissary features, I thought things like the event matches, adventure mode and the home run contest were all cool. Plus I just loved how fast paced it was and how awesome it was to play against your friends. Really though I thought brawl went a little extreme with all the extra and unnecissary features. In my opinion the first two were definitely the best.