Seeing people reference the Sonic OVA and Metal Sonic is always a nice surprise. He was the best thing about it if you're willing to dismiss the awful voice they gave him - at least the Japanese dub made him sound robotic.
It looks like I got my wish! I'm willing to bet Richard Raaphorst is about to get a whole slew of traffic thanks to the boys talking positively about his designs! He did express hope over maybe turning what is a pretty touchy issue into a more positive thing even if Capcom never responds on IG so maybe this'll help.