Doesn’t matter how he’s “the best” or whatsoever. He has no personality whatsoever. I like silent protagonists like Claude from GTA III because they have backstories and subtle expressions, but Red has nothing aside from being a self-insert for the player; not so different from the other later game protagonists. Even in Origins he’s nothing more than your typical “rags to riches” archetype, though that’s more on the anime pacing itself. Manga Red is probably based, but who even reads the manga? People only use him as a reference to make Ash a loser, not because they actually like him (and I’m not defending Ash here, he is an inconsistent loser who got stale over time and has become way past his time before his graduation, but he was super iconic and charismatic back in the earlier seasons).