I think the idea of not having control over your fighter is great. The doubts about people returning because their fighter will get his ass kicked is fallacious

I think the idea of not having control over your fighter is great. The doubts about people returning because their fighter will get his ass kicked is fallacious, I think. It'll just incentivize you to come up with a better character, which means that as long as sequential incentives to keep returning back the ability to do so, the non-control acts as a positive game dynamic/mechanic.