Okay, I'd like to address this since I've seen this in literally every single Dragon Ball Super discussion on every single forum I go on. Perfect Cell (while being literally my favorite DB villain of all time) was never really on the table for resurrection, and story-wise wouldn't work as well as Freeza does, let me explain why.
1. Freeza's sadistic nature, lack of loyalty, and unpredictability; for such a structured tournament such as the world tournament and the lack of killing, Universe 7 having him on their team is like running over hot fire with bare feet but you're also at the same temperature as the fire, sure you're more powerful but you also run the risk of melting your own skin off. It's this constant state of tension that Toriyama was likely going for, and because of Freeza literally only doing what's best for Freeza, that's what works here. Cell is too organized, and the only reason he's evil is because he wants to test his perfection, we've already seen him in a tournament setting, and he lost in that. It wouldn't be wise to do a repeat of a scenario that already happened, but at the same time cashing in on that Freeza nostalgia is wonderful.
2. Freeza is much more marketable; self explanatory, Freeza is almost as recognizable worldwide as Goku is. Cell is big, but nowhere near as big as Freeza is. Going with the resurrection of a lesser known character would be missing out on bags and bags of cash.
3. The chemistry between Goku and Freeza > the chemistry between Goku and Cell; Let's be honest, Cell and Goku never had much of a rivalry in the actual DBZ series, it was always more about Goku and Freeza. Their interactions and natural compatibility as enemies turned allies is a lot more engaging in this particular context.
4. The animators flat out stated they didn't want to do Cell; They said "animating his spots would take way too much work", yeah it's super lazy, but that was their explanation.
1. Freeza's sadistic nature, lack of loyalty, and unpredictability; for such a structured tournament such as the world tournament and the lack of killing, Universe 7 having him on their team is like running over hot fire with bare feet but you're also at the same temperature as the fire, sure you're more powerful but you also run the risk of melting your own skin off. It's this constant state of tension that Toriyama was likely going for, and because of Freeza literally only doing what's best for Freeza, that's what works here. Cell is too organized, and the only reason he's evil is because he wants to test his perfection, we've already seen him in a tournament setting, and he lost in that. It wouldn't be wise to do a repeat of a scenario that already happened, but at the same time cashing in on that Freeza nostalgia is wonderful.
2. Freeza is much more marketable; self explanatory, Freeza is almost as recognizable worldwide as Goku is. Cell is big, but nowhere near as big as Freeza is. Going with the resurrection of a lesser known character would be missing out on bags and bags of cash.
3. The chemistry between Goku and Freeza > the chemistry between Goku and Cell; Let's be honest, Cell and Goku never had much of a rivalry in the actual DBZ series, it was always more about Goku and Freeza. Their interactions and natural compatibility as enemies turned allies is a lot more engaging in this particular context.
4. The animators flat out stated they didn't want to do Cell; They said "animating his spots would take way too much work", yeah it's super lazy, but that was their explanation.