Donkey Kong Country

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Was making the secondary characters better a mistake?

In Donkey Kong Country, Diddy is faster. Everyone I know seems to have prefered playing as him rather than DK, which only had the fairly forgettable "ground slap" move going for him - Diddy's speed and evasion prevailed. Not only that, Diddy shielded himself with barrels when carrying them.

Then comes Donkey Kong Country 2 and Diddy is also surpassed by his partner. Dixie seemed like easymode with her gliding, almost unfair sometimes.

Can't say the same about the third installment, the exception as Dixie was too much. Kiddy is slow and has no gliding, although he has water bouncing for just a few stages. He can also throw Dixie far away, which counts more as a duo thing.

In the end, at least in the first two games, the result was the majority of stages cleared by the secondary character instead of the protagonist, even the final boss.
How could the characters have been better balanced?
And how would an hypothetical fourth game starring DK and Kiddy play out?