I kinda have the same opinion on the mob vote idea... it seems overwhemlingly in the Sniffer's favor if ONLY because it's cute, and even in the 30 seconds it appeared, there was tons of information and promises of new stuff.
The Rascal seems promising in the sense of giving enchanted items or other 'rare' loot. it wasn't given much time in the spotlight, but it could easily be turned into a new NPC rather than a fun mob. I don't see it as much as a mini-game mob with the promise of loot. I see it as a shy NPC who warms up to you, and trades for valuable mining equipment for surface level goods, like wood, wool, and even meat (because who likes bat wings)
The problem with the Tuff Golem, is the same problem the Copper Golem had... "Wow! a new moving mob that seems to randomly move about and serves one very specific niche purpose! Fuck that lets go with something cute!". The Tuff Golem is probably one of the potentially most valuable and powerful mob that could come from the update. I don't see some toddling rock that can hold an item, I see an incredibly powerful automation tool. I see something that makes the allay even more useless than it already is. It's a utility mob that could interact with inventories, like pulling items directly from a Furnaces output, and depositing them into a Chest directly (preventing item lag/deletion). I see a mob that, gods forbid, might even be able to smack some sticks and cobblestone together to make pickaxes. Hell, it might even USE that pickaxe! Maybe it makes musical sounds as it walks, so Allays follow it and pick up any blocks that it drops as it moves?

I digress... that's just what I can imagine for the vote mobs. I can think of just as may for the sniffer, but why bother when it's already primed to win the vote in both aesthetic, and in bringing new 'features'. Nobody talks about the Hats that the Tuff Golems were carrying around... I mean, it's not like that could have been a new item since they were holding items... but oh boy! new plants!

I don't like the implication that the Allay is useless. I still love the Allay, and I'm glad it won. It's THE most useful utility mob for farming because of the built in filter system. Just because not everyone uses it for the utility part doesn't mean people don't also enjoy them just to have as a pet around the base. I know for a fact that being cute is NOT a bad thing.

Also don't make the same mistake as the Glow Squid video voters... they showed a submarine in that video and the glow squid hypnotizing people, and people voted for it because they thought we would get both of those features.

That's fair, they were holding what's-his-name's hat, but either way... I hate seeing the potential these mobs have, knowing full well that two of them are not just being thrown away, they're being tossed in the shredder and set on fire to never be looked at again...

I mean I have the same criticism about the mob vote system. I don't like being shown 3 mobs and then getting a "choose 1, the other 2 die in a fire" message every update. I love hearing about the updates, hate the mob vote. Still wish we could have gotten Copper Golem AND Allay, the Copper Golem looked way more useful and fun than the Tuff Golem.

on the bright side, there are mods to add some of the mobs that lost. I wish they'd just can the stupid vote. The concepts are done, just add them!

I've been holding my own server on 1.19 before the chat report feature myself, but apparently there is ways around it even without mods.

As for the mob vote, Sniffer wins by a long margin for me. The mere mention of "new ancient seeds for plants" immediately got my attention, whether these new plants are a food source to rival golden carrots or just more decoration. I will never say no to new flora.

Rascal feels like a missed opportunity; it giving enchanted gear when there's so many other ways to find or obtain that stuff already feels wasted to me. I'm not saying they should drop raw diamonds, but there's definitely something else it could provide the player; it could even lead you to chests in mineshafts when you find it the third time.

The Tuff Golem is just disappointing. It feels like a worse Allay, combined into an item frame that can, I guess move around? It feels like they could have just made a stone display and called it a day there.

If I have any hopes for future mob votes it's that they hold onto these ideas for a second chance vote, or even have a multiple choice poll to bring in more than one at a time. Or, the smarter choice; add them in the next update cycle.

The Rascal would need unique loot to actually feel worthwhile to vote for. The Sniffer at least was showed to give new items.

Exactly. Still, it's a cool mob and I really like it, if it weren't for the Sniffer, I'd be voting for it as I'm sure many would do. Unfortunate that the vote has to be stringed up like this. :/

A friend of mine told me he plays on a vanilla minecraft server with some friends. The server admin said something in chat while nobody else was on and got banned for 2 weeks. This isn't just reports, even in a private server with nobody else, you get banned for saying words Microsoft doesn't like.