I agree with the quantity vs quality thing, what makes an LI interesting is his personality. If there are too many, there is no screen time to get to know them (or the plot gets bogged down).
However, there is no tabula rasa character, even in a tabletop RPG. I mean, you can make up a character who is a British aristocratic fire mage, but then you have to act like a British aristocrat (and a fire mage).
Kylie/Kyle's role was to allow the player to explore this strange new world with/through them. We have to move on from there, not start from scratch with another average person.
Decisions can only affect the fate of the character, not his or her personality, otherwise they will ruin the narrative.
With my earlier example, for table-top role-playing: If the aristocratic fire mage decides to spit on the table in company, or breaks one of the basic rules of wizardry, the storyteller warns the player that this is not appropriate for the role. If he persists in his stupidity despite this, the storyteller will improvise some punishment.
The more bound format of the VN doesn't allow this, but I think it's more interesting to tell a story with gods/wizards than with civilians who accidentally get involved. (Yes, it depends on the skills of the writer, but I trust Nine.)
At least for me, it's more challenging to play with Sofia/Rami/Desmond, whose decisions can cause a world catastrophe, than with John Smith. A little man can have great story (Frodo, Lord of the Rings), it just gets annoying after a while that they need help all the time.
