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

Ryder has made me reassess the annoyance level of the majority of JRPG protagonists.

Ryder's voice acting ain't exactly Orson Welles either, bud.

Ryder is fine. But not being able to be a jerk to some people is really shitty. Not a big fan of the four shades of paragon.

I mean don't get me wrong. He/she has a great back story and if very interesting for who he/she is, but his/her personality is not what made the game. At least not for me. It was the other characters. The companions, the NPC's you met, the story that wove itself across the Galaxy. But while I can remember distinct lines from Shep and really feel like my Shep had a unique personality, Revan did not. Revan was basically Gordon Freeman. Cool story, cool background, but I don't bond with Gordon and I don't bond with Revan.

This is why I enjoy the game so much. I don't even think about ME2 or ME3 while playing it. ME1 was my favorite game in the trilogy and MEA feels like a modern version of that game.

MEA is like Zelda's Twilight Princess to Ocarina of Time for me (but with more bugs)

I feel like Bioware listened to the people who said Shepard spoke for himself too much and had too much of his own personality in ME3. As a result, they didn't put too much emphasis on the lines for roleplaying purposes like people asked. I felt like I had a lot more control over my Ryder's personality than I did with my Shepard (not that Shepard's personality ever bothered me)

It's fun for you (role playing as a soldier) to punch a woman (who is just a reporter asking a question) in the face for no reason?

Hm. Maybe because of roleplaying.

But Ryder's personality is based on a lot of autodialogue too. For example I don't like him joking around in bad or dangerous situations, yet I have to swallow his crappy jokes and feel like I often have no control at all about my Ryder, who I wanted to play as professional and logical.
I agree Ryder is great to shape if, and only if, you enjoy sarcastic, witty and funny Paragons. That's all that Ryder is. And yeah, while Shepard had a lot of autodialogue as well, they should've learned from that and improve the system. Instead they take away control for some people who wanted to play a more aggressive Ryder. I still think they should've gone with DA2's approach of altering autodialogue depending on which tone choices you used. Now THAT would've probably made me love Ryder from the get-go. I hope they at least make the dialogue system better in MEA2 and let him grow as a person. I don't hate Ryder at all and I feel there's potential there, but he's a quite weak protagonist so far for me.

I did not read all the comments in this thread (only the first few pages), but I personally think Ryder is very well "fit for the job" in ME:A.

It's Shepard who would be completely out of tone here. Just imagine. First of all - He's a hardened military, that is used to obey and being obeyed. He is used to give commands, and that people following this commands, because.. Well military. You have to obey or it's mutiny and you can face a court-martial. He is also used to be a Spectre, and knows he's above the law if needed. That makes him great in ME1,2,3, but completely "out of place" in ME:A.

Now - Compare that to Ryder. Ryder is not acting in a military environment. On the contrary - It's a complete civilian operation. That means Ryder has to behave as good as possible, or he will be stripped of his authority and replaced by another pathfinder. He is just an employer, and has to keep his superiors (somewhat) happy. His crew is also not military, so his authority has to be based on loyalty. If some of his crew does not like him or gets deeply offended, they can just walk away without being punished for it. They are no soldiers that have to obey, but civilians that can say "enough is enough, I quit".

As a result Ryder has to be careful, and make sure he does not goes "over the edge". Sure - he can afford to be rude now and then, but no too often and not too harsh. The way Shepard behaves would not be tolerated in a civilian operation. He would be kicked out very soon, and replaced by someone that acts a bit more civilized and is more of a "team player".

Like it or not. The circumstances in ME:A would make Shepard completely out of place, but makes Ryder the ideal candidate.

This is (of course) a personal opinion, but there you have it.

That's likely because bioware used to make games were the main player character were more like an empty vessel for self insert personality shaping and seeing the story rather than an actual character on it's own. The fond memories people have of "revan" are likely more just Kotor as a whole.

The change to the style of a more defined character first came with Shepard, and hawke for DA, both introducing the dialogue wheel and voiced main characters to their respective franchise.

Ryder: Looting is Wrong!

Looters: OoOoooo looting is wrooong...what a little bitch, fuck off.

SAM: Ryder is provoking them further acheiving anything?

Ryder: You're right SAM lets move on...

Ehmm.. No.

Even Alec has to ask permission to go planet side remember? He can order people around in habitat 7, because it's a crysis situation, and somebody must take the lead. However, back on the Nexus (or ark), he has to thread lightly, because he has no authority. Jep - He has a military training, but he's no Spectre, and he is kicked out of his job because he was messing around with AI. This makes him effectively an ex-military, that has to adapt to a civilian operation (and the clash between him and the ark's captain illustrate he's not very good at that).

But indeed - maybe it's for the better he's dead, because chances are big he would clash with civilian authority at a certain point. I think the writers understood that very well.