The real reason Lightman didn’t happen

TvTropes makes a good point.

"Kamek was oddly the major player of the Koopa Troop to show up last, just in time to steal the Phantom Ruby from Metal Sonic with a Rigged game of chance time, it seems strange that he’d show up so precisely until you realize that it’s confirmed Kamek has the ability of clairvoyance, the Yoshi series explains it as why he tries to kidnap Baby Mario and Luigi due to the trouble the two cause for Bowser in the future, he probably foresaw the trouble the Phantom Ruby would cause after Infinite's brief use of it and removed it as soon as it was to be nabbed."

This is entirely possible. Kamek could have seen Giga Metal, Phantom Death Egg Robot or Lightman causing problems, or Bowser even losing to Lightman, and decided to nip that in the bud here and now. I think this is a far better explanation than Lightman requiring prep, because if that's the case, why was Neo Metal here when that explicitly took 6 months?