Hm. That's a tricky one. At one point fans really REALLY wanted more Sakamoto, but Sorachi said the time for him to receive his own arc had already passed. He stated his absence was part of his characteristics, which I think makes sense. But same time I believe we should have gotten more; even if it's another small appearance before entering the final arcs.What makes this question tricky is I think Sorachi was looking to make his character scarce from the start. What people tend to miss is the characters are models after historical people but the main roster of characters aren't as straight forward as Hijikata, Kondo, Sogo, and Katsura.Gintoki is said to be based on Sakata Kintoki, a Japanese folklore. But Sorachi stated he only took the physical strength and reworked the name to use for the main protagonist. He never aimed to create the legendary wild boy.If you look at Gintoki's life in Edo, and Ryoma Sakamoto's life, you can see Sorachi was recreating his story through mostly Gintoki. He's a split between Gintoki and Sakamoto's characters. As a kid Sakamoto was a wimp, to put it simply. His eldest sister, Otome was possibly his biggest influence in his life. She was a strong capable woman who was worried about her younger brother so she pushed him to do something that he could take to. He was bullied a lot in school so she enrolled him in a fencing school and he took to that quite well. Before this he wasn't the best scholar. He loved his sister for being so rough with him because it got him out of his shell. A number of people think she and Ryoma may be models for Otae and Shinpachi.Gintoki, a skilled samurai, much like Ryoma became. He was so skilled by the time he was an adult that he became an instructor for one of the top three fencing schools of Edo. It's during this time that we know he fought and lost against Katsura Kogoro, another chief instructor at one of the schools.Moving on: Gintoki lives much of Sakamoto's early adulthood:-Went to Edo to make a name for himself -Ryoma meets a lady Tereyada (Otose)- meets his future wife, Oryo, who's father died early and left his family destitute. With no adult male figure, her family were an easy target for predators.The family sold their home and began to sell their belongings. Oryo then began selling her clothes so that her mother and younger sisters wouldn't have to. Eventually, the kids were scattered. I think her youngest brother was five and her entered the Shibataguchi as an acolyte. Meanwhile one of Oryo's younger sisters was duped and taken by a scoundrel and sold to the Shimabara as a maiko.When Oryo realized this she sold her last good kimono and headed for Osaka to confront the villains there. She didn't care if they killed her, and she carried a dagger. When they saw how determined she was, the scoundrel showed her the tattoo on his arm and shouted threats at her. But she had come prepared to die, and so she flew at him, grabbing his clothing, striking him in the face, and exclaimed that if he didn't return the younger sister he had brought to Osaka with him she would stab him.The wretch shouted, "Look out, woman, or I'll kill you!" They went at each other with shouts of "Kill!" and "Do you worst!"After all, through, he couldn't very well murder the woman who had come to Osaka, and so she was able to get her younger sister back and take her to Kyoto with her again. Isn't that a story? The youngest daughter in the Shimabara is in no danger immediately, so she has left her there for now.It was this story that won Ryoma's love and admiration. He explains in letters to his sister that he's helping to get her siblings places, and he's entrusted Oryo to the care of the landlady of the Teredaya as he was already planning to marry Oryo, simply because he was in love with this strong awesome woman.These events are written by Ryoma to his eldest sister. These remind me of episodes three where Otae sacrifices herself for her families dojo. And episode 36 where Otae's young coworker got duped by a con artist. Sakamoto already thought they were meant to be when he first met her because they both had RYO in their names. Gintama's Sakamoto and Oryo play off on that last aspect I think. But overall I can see the famous couple within Tae and Gin's dynamic. They don't come together at the end but honestly Sorachi gave highlights to their dynamic. Otose is pretty much the famous lady. However (this may be just me) but since the young don't get together in the Gintama series. I think he used Otose to showcase the later facet of Oryou's life, after Ryōma's death. She grew old and faded to obscurity. Many of Ryōma's friends never went to check on her except Saigo, whose Gintama counterpart was close to Otose and became a close companion to Otae.Ryoma later in life, created a shipping company fleet which is what Sakamoto mostly lived in the series. It's probably why we never see him as Gintoki is already living most of the originals life. Not having Sakamoto around much made sense. But Idk why Sorachi even made Sakamoto in the first place if the only reason he exists is to have jokes about how irrelevant he is. He's a great businessman and negotiator. He had a significant role towards the end.Though Sakamoto's screen time in Gintama is extremely limited the way Sorachi was able to maximize that time especially in the later arcs displays how phenomenal of a character he is.He plays the fool but he's honestly one of the smartest characters in Gintama with a business. But because he plays a crucial role as negotiator and somewhat in charge of Nobu Nobu, I would have liked a bit more showing from Sakamoto  because of that role being pivotal. Him being silly and absent, then popping up and being a boss, seems like it was Sorachi giving such an absurd character time to shine before the series end. I'd say it was handled fairly well but more time with him wouldn't have hurt. I just expected more than what we got. Not just from him but all of the Joui 4 members.