Which 4 squadmates would you remove from ME2?

Found it: If you had to cut 3 squadmates from ME2 by ArcadiaGrey

In that poll, I chose: Legion, Grunt, and Thane.

• I prefer Geth as antagonists throughout the series. Removing Legion would have left a little more room for Geth in ME2 as an enemy faction. He is pretty much Tali except with a worse bonus power. The Widow is decent on him, but... eh.
• Grunt because I think he is the most useless squadmate in the game, and I do not want a 'typical Krogan' on the team. Tali and Legion are niche, and Grunt is not even good enough to be niche. He even sucks at his own loyalty mission.
• Thane because we did not need the Drell in Mass Effect. I think the Drell history is interesting, but we only meet Thane and his son in ME2 (and ME3 only if Thane survives ME2) and no other Drell ever again in the trilogy campaign. I would miss his Warp with Pull/Slam/Singularity, but I would maybe put it on Jack instead because Shockwave is terrible.

So now all I need to do is choose a fourth squadmate to cut from the game. I am thinking Kasumi, since she is probably the worst fit story-wise in the game (why do we need a thief?), but that would leave me with 1 tech specialist and two tech specialists (Jack and Samara/Morinth). Jack would likely be my other choice since she is not a good fit story-wise either, since we don't need a lone-wolf convict. Samara may be a lone wolf, but she did used to be a mercenary so she has had experience with group combat dynamics in the past.

This is a tough one. I have to ignore how their lack affects ME3. OK, as much as it pains me to say it, since this is Shepard with Cerberus, I'd remove the two squadmates Shepard trusts - Garrus and Tali. We have Thane and Kasumi to fill their roles so they're kind of unnecessary. Also, in context of the novels, Tali makes very little sense. Being there should have made Tali suspect as a traitor. I love her, and Garrus, but let's make way for the new cast.

That leaves two squadmates that are exclusive to ME2. I feel like Miranda is too integral to the storyline. In a way, Jacob is, too. That is, it would make sense for TIM to have at least a couple people loyal to Cerberus present. For that reason, I'd keep both of them. I've already decided to keep Thane and Kasumi because they fill the same roles as Garrus and Tali. Mordin is central to the plot. I think in terms of what they bring to the table, we really have a lot of biotics. Jacob and Miranda are staying so do we really need to have it at four? Jack I find to be interesting. She's not any more or less likely to be wanted by TIM (both are unlikely - a cop who kills anyone she perceives as bad or a Cerberus hater; either would would TIM dead). That means I get rid of Samara, even though I really like her.

Now I've got to look at the non-biotics, which is everyone else. I think Legion. Not for any special reason but her works much better in connection with Tali and since she's gone there's no reason for him. I do find it hard to believe that anyone would bother to bring Legion on board the Normandy. Too dangerous to consider when you've watched geth put humans on spikes and turn them into monsters. Tbh, my first thought would be that Legion is some kind of geth plot to take control of the Normandy. I do like Legion, but I'd get rid of him for this reason.

Everything I wrote was my thought process as it came to me. I tried to keep my feelings toward characters out of it and go with what makes sense in the game. If I were going by who I like, I'd have a harder time cutting four.

So, that's my cut selection: Garrus, Tali, Samara and Legion.

We should be able to vote Jacob 4 times

I wouldn't remove any of them per se.  I would just make it so you don't actually have to recruit Garrus, Jack, or Mordin.  Similar to ME1, you could do the recruitment mission for Garrus and just send him packing.  Ditto with Jack.  Since Mordin's tech is critical, I would just have an option where you could leave Mordin to work on it the project from Omega.  I would also add in an option to kick Jacob and/or Miranda off the project if you have recruited 8 of the others.  That way, you could really vary the team you take through the relay... and combo from 8 to 12 would be possible.

This is a tough choice. I would choose Mornith (if you can choose to cut her but keep Samara); she's a sociopath and a serial killer who only agrees to help you for the mission. She tries to kill you by saying "let's meld, I think you're strong enough to resist it". She's more of a loose cannon than Jack (who had a horrific past and isn't a compulsive liar like Morinth). I would keep Samara though. Beside her my choices are;
* Jacob; Because his powers don't really contribute anything, he doesn't bring anything unique to the table and he serves no purpose other than giving you the Normandy armour upgrade (which could be passed onto another character such as Miranda or Mordin). Even his claim as a stabilizing element doesn't crop up in the story. He tries to talk to Tali though her people have a grudge against Cerberus and goads her when he tells her about EDI. He antagonizes Thane because he doesn't like assassins as they're "only loyal to their next paycheck", though interestingly Zaeed is a mercenary but Jacob has no negative words for him. He doesn't check Miranda's negative qualities nor does he have any interactions with Jack.
* Jack; while she has a sympathetic past and contributes power, she does have too much loose cannon traits and could start a fight (she attacked Miranda, God knows what would happen if she said the wrong thing to Grunt or Zaeed, who are as violent as she is). Not to mention storywise Samara also works as a powerful biotic.
* Grunt; This is a hard choice between him and Zaeed. They fill similar roles, and the problem is that Grunt is too inexperienced while Zaeed is too immoral (jeopardizing the mission, causing collateral damage without considering other options, challenging and drawing a weapon on a superior officer). I would choose to keep Zaeed, though I dislike him, only because he's useful and without Jack or Grunt, there's no chance of a loose cannon type character setting him off.
* Thane; Because he is dying, and a previous post mentioned him not caring whether he lived or died would be detrimental.

As weird as this sounds, but Thane made Mass Effect for me.

Yes.

I love the Mass Effect universum to bits, I love characters like TIM, Shepard herself/himself, Garrus, Joker and Wrex.

But to truly fell in love to a character was an experience I never thought would happen in my life. Thane's arc was well written to the end. His recruiting mission was the most intense and he was also a very valuable squadmate with biotics and heavy weapons.

Yet, there were a lot of team members in ME2. But hey, originally, you needed an small army to get trough the mission. Everyone was valuable, but my Shepard was very suspicious about Zaeed: Illusive man could have offered Zaeed a job to end Shepard if s/he rebelled. He only followed the trail of money.