Ryder is not a terrible character, he/she just not belongs here:

ZOMG!  Thank You.  I had been trying to come up with a good comparison and I think that hit the nail right on the head.  MEA really does remind me of an episode of Buffy. 

Well, my view changed from  "Hm, maybe Alec really saw something in his daughter and believed that she's a better choice" to "This man is dysfunctional moron!"

I think you misunderstood me  - I didn't say, that without beacon Shepard could defeat Saren and Sovereign, or stop Reapers. What I said, is that Shepard didn't became a Spectre because of beacon, but her previous accomplishments, while Ryder became a Pathfinder only because of SAM. 

Actually, Shepard is considered for the role from prior accomplishments, but Shepard actually becomes a Spectre primarily out of political convenience. The mission to Eden Prime was a test, and Shepard technically failed. The beacon was destroyed and the Spectre that came along to observe Shepard in action (who would likely have been the deciding factor in taking on the role) was killed in action. The whole thing was pretty much a disaster. And then Anderson throws in this bit about visions, which makes the humans look kind of crazy (I love how you can say that they'll think you're crazy prior, and he just does it anyway). Saren, sinister bastard as he may be, put up a solid defense at that meeting.

If it wasn't for Tali suddenly showing up with a damning mp3 file, Shepard would have remained simply an Alliance operative and the Council would have given no fucks about it. But with their disinclination to send forces into the Terminus, and seeing a potential benefit to appeasing the humans, who were gaining in influence on the Citadel, Shepard, this already-candidate for the job, was then given Spectre status. If the Council wasn't so concerned about provoking people in the Terminus, they would have sent someone who was already a Spectre. 

In any case, I don't think these comparisons are really fair. SAM is basically a "tool of the trade" for the Pathfinder role, and each member of the Pathfinder team is equipped to potentially have to take up the responsibility in the event the current Pathfinder is incapacitated or dies, so it doesn't really function the same way the Spectres do at all. 

Well yeah, Nihilus was an idiot, and he dies faster on his own. Obviously the circumstances were far more extreme, but just the same, Shepard technically gets the role of Spectre not because of the reality of the situation, but the convenience of being part of a small strike team that could deal with Saren more discretely. They don't really seem interested in details anyway. Just look at the Virmire mission. Shepard is blamed for something an STG team is actually responsible for. 

Lol I totally forgot about that too. DId you have to set off the volcano, Shepard?

I agree. Having just played ME1 a few days ago, this mission is really fresh in my head and it was definitely on Nihlus for his death. His scouting was nothing Shepard could do anything about and the destroyed beacon is not even Shepard's fault either.  That is on his curious crew who didn't know enough to stay away from the beacon and decided to get curious. And to that extent Shepard went above and beyond by knocking them out of the field and taking the hit himself. Likely his crew would have died. That he lived is considered surprising to Liara.

He actually saved the colony as best as he could. He killed all the geth/husks there. He stopped the bombs and destruction of it. So yeah, if it weren't for Nihlus' scouting, they might have stood a much better chance against Saren. Also, he saved Ash whose whole team died and she was probably about to get killed when you find her. Jenkins is a bit of a fail by design. Probably using cover would have been a better choice than sending one guy in with no cover at all, but that's what they wanted so that is what the writers did. He was meant to die.

The Exile >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Revan.

And wait until Ryder gets three full games (how do people keep skipping over this?!?) before comparing him/her to Shepard, smh.

You clearly forgetting that Shepard is already much better and more solid protagonist than Ryder in the first ME alone, getting only better and better with each following ME installment. So Ryder chances of catching up seem to be nonexistent - it will take an entirely new character to do that, so might as well get rid of Ryder surname to reduce MEA aftertaste from any future ME games. 
Please stop making up excuses for MEA terrible character writing, which is all-time low in BW games. I perfectly understand that you simply trying to convince yourself that MEA is a better game that it actually is, because you need to justify those 60+ USD you spent on it, but doing so does not help ME series future in any way, only detracting from it. Fans need to make sure that BW knows how much they screwed up and that low of the lows the MEA is, will not be accepted in the future, so they must pull their shit together. When people make up excuses for Andromeda it only looks as if such low character writing quality is acceptable and will only lead to more low quality games from BW. Just stop and think about what you doing.

He just does that. You get used to it.

Though that's essentially canon for me I still don't believe this is BioWare canon.  Remember, they went out of their way to make the next game in another galaxy just to avoid a canon ending.  If they're having a canon ending, why not just continue in the Milky Way?  It makes no sense.

It's all fanservice, don't you see? It's an illusion!