>>35940453Sales, trending topics in blogs and boards and fanart say a lot more than polls were people who probably don't watch the anime every week or spend a cent in the merch. Ash's fanart and merch has never slowed down and new merch themed with his SM design keeps coming out, if people really disliked him no such a thing would happen.
This is like trying to poll the public of MTV or Vice. Poll CoroCoro or even Pash! and you would get completely different results.