I'm also getting good progress in Garou. It's pretty simplistic. Skills in 2d games really do carry over. I've gotten so much better in Garou in WEEKS due to now understanding the basic premise of 2d fighters.
KOF02 is HARD. Despite having less moves than SF (I think?) I have no IDEA how to get in or what the game plan is for ANY of these characters besides Terry and the old Fatal Fury gang. I wanna learn my girl Yuri. Game is tough and I should stick to arcade mode single player for the time being.
For KOF check out this beginners guide by Dandy J, it's a great intro to KOF in general:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r75Lz1Drp8g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF5yg2QH_Lw
Also check out Juicebox's youtube channel, he has many great KOF tutorial and tips & tricks vids.
And yeah, Garou MOTW is great. It's not too hard to get into and is just a blast to play in general. The cast isn't huge but pretty much every character is really fun to play, and the character animation has so much personality.
Dimps borrowed heavily from it for SFIV, heck even SFV's new crush counter system is almost straight out of Garou.