I disagree with you - not because of the points you're making (as you say, you are reacting to what you see), but because I just have a different opinion of it. And that's fine in both cases, we're both right because we're just stating our opinions, even if they are opposing.
I feel that if the number of characters were reduced, it would necessitate a reduction in choice as well. I mentioned this to a friend in DM, so I'm going to be lazy and copy and paste from there (excuse the tone, as it's taken out of context as part of a private conversation):
It's maybe taking it to an extreme, but that's the way I look at it - you'd suddenly end up with either no choice on some or all characters, or you'd end up having no content if you do choose to avoid those characters.
I think the ones that you list as being similar do offer something different though, or at least, they will by the time they're a bit more established. John/Jessica and James/Rachel are a good example of this, as from a glance they are two couples who swing - why have two of these, when one should be enough? I figure (choice and preference of looks/personality etc. aside), you've got an unknown couple and a best friend couple. The unknown couple (James/Rachel) are an ideal starting point to test the waters, then if Alex and Sarah are comfortable with it, they can move on to John/Jessica with less fear of ruining the friendship if it turns out that they don't like what they're getting in to.
Abigail and Eva are maybe a bit difficult, again because we've not yet had enough time (especially from Abigail) to get to know them. They do look to me like they're coming at Alex from different places though, or with different motivations at least, and that can make a big difference.
I like the freedom of choice. It might make things take a bit longer to get going, but it should give us a similar amount of overall content, it's just that we'd be able to more freely avoid some of it if we don't like X or Y character for any given reason.
