*blind reply to OP*

It's definitely a real phenomenon. There are common tropes that repeat in storytelling and have since mankind began telling stories. Our real lives tend to be bland and disappointing, and stories/fantasies/myths/epics explore all those unfulfilled longings that reside in the deepest and most base places of our humanity. People have always been, and will always be, people. Because of that, we have always and will always see the same character tropes repeated endlessly. 

That being said, I am always insanely excited to run into characters who stray outside the more commonly rehashed molds, and I try to make my own characters interesting without falling into those old traps. It's a learning process, and I think most of us cringe if we look back at our old attempts at character building (I know I do). Also, there *are* people who grow up as abused, abandoned orphans, or ethereally beautiful narcissists. Almost every trope you can think of *does* match a real person, somewhere in the world. But when you're in an enclosed universe of roleplay, it's harder to find variety because the world is shrunk to the size of your fellow players. 

So I try to measure my character creation based on the universe that I'm playing in, the characters already in play (I may adore the thought of playing a leather-clad female assassin, for example, but if there are already half a dozen of those, I won't make another), what interests me, what I know I'm good at portraying, and then try to think of something interesting to make them feel "real". I have no wish to play overpowered, physically perfect, flawless characters. Right now I have an uneducated cripple, a woman with violent schizophrenia, a libertine with no impulse control, and a few others. 

Whenever I happen to find a character who is both well-written and *interesting*, that is like finding a treasure. Granted, everyone will define "interesting" in their own way, but I will take the complex, layered, background character over the powerful, brilliant, gorgeous, charming, spotlight-hound any day.