At this point I'm very skeptical of the puppets. The puppeteer doesn't get to activate, not even ARO, while the puppets are alive.
He's fairly easy to kill with attacks like speculative fire, or by things like speculos, fidays's and oni. Even something as weak as a yuan yuan or bashi bozuk has a decent chance to kill him if they can get a bead on him. (Easier said than done, oni, fidays and speculo can do it pretty easily).
I don't think it's hard to get rid of him. I do really like the puppeteer. Most the lists I build come in at 11-13 orders. It's nice to reduce or eliminate the going first penalty, the mines and cheap order are also much appreciated.
I am very excited about pretty much everything else. Looking forward to some table time.