Why are turians the most anticipated species for MEA inclusion?

If you read the poll results from "SO, YOU WORK AT BIOWARE AND HAVE TO AXE 3 SPECIES FROM ANDROMEDA, WHICH WOULD THEY BE?" in reverse order, you can arguably get the most anticipated or most desired species to include in MEA.  I'm not surprised by the top 3 species to get the boot, by popular vote, but I am surprised by the bottom 3. In order or most desired to least, as of this posting:

1. Turian
2. Krogan
3. Salarian

Why is turian so desirable? Is it purely on the popularity of Garrus?

Krogan and salarian I can rationalize, since each potentially fills an archetypal niche that's always good to have in an assemble cast (noble savage and comedy relief, not necessarily respectively), but I'm not sure why turians top the list. I'm not asking rhetorically -- meaning, I'm not implying that they shouldn't -- I really want to understand.

I have my opinion of course and if asked before the poll, I never would have put the turians at the top. Why? These quotes from the poll thread echo my read of the turians brilliantly, so rather than paraphrase clumsily, I'll just post them here:




I'll add that the turian member of the Council was arguably the most anti-human and the biggest asshole of the three, and that historically the First Contact war has to have created some extremism on both sides. So, all in all, not a lot of love lost between turians and humans.

Is the popularity about wanting some turian/human hostility and drama to be carried over from the Milky Way? That would make sense to me. Have a turian member of the crew always looking for the military option and pushing for conquest and imperialistic options, while others push for more ambassadorial or peaceful options? Although that role might cross up with a krogan member and be a bit redundant, I suppose.