A couple commenters mentioned dynamic and the replacement of other characters, and there could definitely be something to that. I'm trying to think of some examples of late-comers and how I felt about them. Hm... okay, I have a few that I felt different ways about:
Max was introduced in S2 of Stranger Things after the dynamic among the kids had been pretty well established. It felt like she didn't really have much to do, and the story wouldn't have really changed without her. I didn't hate her, but I felt sort of... ambivalent about her inclusion. I liked that we had another female character, but she felt somewhat pointless. It wasn't until the third season gave her stuff to do that she really started to grow on me, and now I am pretty fond of her.
Vega was the weird new squadmate in Mass Effect 3. After two games with some wonderful teammates I'd grown to love, going into the next game with a character who the narrative posed as your new best friend, who we'd never met before, was a little... odd. It was made worse when characters like Miranda, who were vital to the previous game, were not made squadmates despite the plot tripping over itself to not let her join you for really dumb reasons. While I don't think he has the memorability of the characters from the previous games, he had a good dynamic with the other characters and ended up being pretty likable.
King of the Hill introduced 'Lucky', played by Tom Petty, at the end of the eighth season. He went on to marry a main character and get way too many storylines. I couldn't stand him and I still don't. Lucky-centric episodes are the ones that are skipped on rewatches. He didn't mesh well with the dynamic established by the rest of the previous cast, he was frustrating to watch, and he got more and more screentime than his wife-- who was a fan favorite and very important part of the DNA of the series. I felt like his introduction was a major detriment to the series as a whole.
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Max was introduced in S2 of Stranger Things after the dynamic among the kids had been pretty well established. It felt like she didn't really have much to do, and the story wouldn't have really changed without her. I didn't hate her, but I felt sort of... ambivalent about her inclusion. I liked that we had another female character, but she felt somewhat pointless. It wasn't until the third season gave her stuff to do that she really started to grow on me, and now I am pretty fond of her.
Vega was the weird new squadmate in Mass Effect 3. After two games with some wonderful teammates I'd grown to love, going into the next game with a character who the narrative posed as your new best friend, who we'd never met before, was a little... odd. It was made worse when characters like Miranda, who were vital to the previous game, were not made squadmates despite the plot tripping over itself to not let her join you for really dumb reasons. While I don't think he has the memorability of the characters from the previous games, he had a good dynamic with the other characters and ended up being pretty likable.
King of the Hill introduced 'Lucky', played by Tom Petty, at the end of the eighth season. He went on to marry a main character and get way too many storylines. I couldn't stand him and I still don't. Lucky-centric episodes are the ones that are skipped on rewatches. He didn't mesh well with the dynamic established by the rest of the previous cast, he was frustrating to watch, and he got more and more screentime than his wife-- who was a fan favorite and very important part of the DNA of the series. I felt like his introduction was a major detriment to the series as a whole.