I gotta say, Ryder is a nice contrast to Shepard....

Yes! I totally agree, been thinking this too. Like, I've been doing the opposite of what my Shepard would do. So, not the completely ruthless, get the job done at all costs type. I love that I get to play the diplomat. And I like that he jokes often. But it always felt like a treat when Shepard made a joke haha.

I think a commander shepard type veteran would ruin the game. I don't want that in a game about exploration and wonder. Shepard fit the role he was required for in MET. It is not needed here. We are explorers, and not hardened fighters.

I actually like Ryder way more than Shepard. Shepard was cool but he had the personality of burnt toast he just had great companions following him around.

He also worked for a terrorist group in ME2. 

My Ryder is really starting to grow on me. So is the voice acting of Fryda Wolf.

Ryder is a green scrub, a kid. Commander Shepard would break his nose and then drop him off the rooftop of a building after hearing some of Ryders snark.

Gun battles and space exploration isn't the domain of snarky snowflake comedians. Alec Ryder was more likable than Scott Ryder.

Disclaimer: I'm not an Andromeda hater.

As for Ryder needing to be more relatable, I get it. But keep in mind, real life tends to be different. The best leaders are precisely the one's that stand out from the crowd, who are different than everyone else, almost more-than-human. People will follow them to the death without hesitation. Think of Jesus, Ghandi, the Buddha. They are relatable in the sense that they are human. That ought to be enough.

Uhm, the fact that he had ability to do all those things you mentioned, does not mean he actually had to do them - it was a players choice to shape Shepard that way. Otherwise, following that twisted logic of yours, you can also brand all males as rapists from birth due to having male genitalia. In contrast to yours, my Shepard was a reasonable man, acting on the situation and doing what seemed to be right in a context of situations. While he was not holy and sinless by any stretch, sometimes doing things that had to be done no matter how controversial they might look for an average Yes-sheep, ultimately he was a good man. One who is larger than life yet does not afraid to take stance or get his hand dirty when situation demands. In other words, original trilogy allowed roleplaying ranging from simple good/bad mentality forcefully following single para/rene path, to a complicated characters with a solid reasoning and motivations, whether good or bad, as well as giving players the ability to deeply imprint themselves onto protagonist, which provided huge immersion factor.
Now in Andromeda we have Ryder boy/girl-scout who can only be a good or sarcastic/goofy good characters, often poorly fitting into context of the game scenes and making it feel more like a teenage drama movie than an epic story of survival and exploration in a new galaxy. If Bioware introduced some character growth, showing how a person grows from goofy yersterday-teenager into a person that everyone (literally, according to a game) depends on, that would be ok, but the problem  - there isn't any meaningful character growth. It seems that Ryder stays that way throughout entire game, and that makes impossible to take Ryder seriously, providing a strong sense of teenage drama or comedy if you want, and not a game about exploration of unknown and survival in another galaxy when all plans failed and things go south.
I have no illusions that this game can not be fixed character and storywise. As Ian Frazier said: "That ship has sailed". I just hope that BW will learn from this, releases few patches to fix critical bugs and game problems, and then completely forgets that Andromeda (game, not the story about traveling to another galaxy) happened and moves on to make a new game with new protagonists and character cast, which hopefully will be able to recapture most things that made original trilogy so great - things like good and mature story writing with, with a reasonable amount of drama, relatable protagonist and characters that are deep and feel alive.

If that is so then i don t feel it. Within 5 minutes i was already into the role of Shepard.
Ryder? So far a kid with an happy face.

lol touche! Firefly was cancelled after 1 season though? I think Starlord would be a better counter example. But Chris Pratt is genuinely funny and likable, Chris Pratt is way more likable than Scott Ryder.

I see a lot of ppl throwing lines about lighthearted mentality fitting better for explorer, and completely forgetting that Ryder is not merely an explorer in his backyard - he is a Pathfinder, someone who pretty much solely responsible for lives of tens of thousands people. In some way he has even more responsibility than Shepard did. While Shep was, speaking figuratively, a tip of the spear, Ryder seems to be an entire proverbial spear. The way game puts it - there are essential things that cant literally happen without authorization from designated pathfinder, position that seems to be sort of hereditary for some reason, requiring another pathfinder to promote person into one. And while one can argue that Shepard had a a galaxy on his Shoulders, for Ryder this expedition IS galaxy in a sense. Because there is no way out of it and if they fail, then there will be no second chances, at least for this expedition. 
This brings a though that maybe BW shouldn't have rid of Alec Ryder in the prologue, and left him for at least a some protion of a game, where he would be doing his Pathfinder thing, making important decisions etc, while Ryder twins would be delegated to secondary tasks, like exploring and helping Ryder senior with his plans, while gaining valuable experience and growing as characters. Then somewhere along the game something could have happened with Alec, and Ryder jr. would be given reins. I think such approach could have only benefited story in pretty much all ways, except maybe "I want to be space Jesus now!"- thing. Hell, it would be completely ok to keep Alec in charge through entire game, leaving all hard choices for him, and keeping lighthearted mood for player characters, which would fit much better into such story.

edit: nm...not a very well-written post.

I would only add: We have so many Scott Ryder's in this world, but so few Shepard's.