Part of the appeal of X is that he isn't Zero, to be honest.
I'll admit, I am not good at fighting games, but I look at X and think he's going to be able to do something dirty. He basically has short projectile rekkas and can mix it up which of his special weapons he cancels into. Just because you started with a Boomerang Cutter doesn't mean your second shot has to be one. His ability to cancel his Charge Shot into stuff might also be good.
So far my newbish plan for a team is "X and someone newbie friendly." Captain America, Iron Man, maybe. The tutorial vids for Captain America and Iron Man make them seem fairly approachable. Morrigan and Thor are also possible, but... Morrigan does not look like a secondary character. You learn her well, or you pick someone else. X is the character I want to learn well.
LoL, I agree to the first part. Growign up, I'd always play Zero in games, and my brother Megaman, so we really got to personalize in each character. I never really picked him up much in MVC however, though I did enjoy him in TvC.
Anywho, I agree with X lookin' like he'll be doin' people dirty. The Boomerang cutter looks like wonderful utility, Ice hits give solid time to do MORE, and as you say, he can mix between them on a whim. This makes him sound like an excellent Lab character, but everyone focusing on the more evil and "badass" types first, so...
X does seem like the poste rboy for a beginner's intermediate character, so your observation sounds good to me. Being able to carry him with someone easier, while learning his specialization, should work. And semi-thankfully, his armor boost doesn't look like it makes him that much more confusing, it just makes what you've already learned better.
I wish the level 3 supers were way more creative. Thanos for example shouldn't just be punching somebody. He could throw a planet or so many others things.
This particular design team just isn't up to Capcom's traditionally high standards. They do some good work at points, and you can see the beginnings of awesome things, but they're not solid.
Hopefully, the DLC characters show obvious improvements, as time goes on. If Jedah is an example of a late-process character, we should be in better hands.