very interesting... (ignoring option 1 since that's not happening)
so universal normal's for certain options (well i guess every option), poking, close range checking, anti-air (a la KOF's LP); no character specific "super jumps" and different speed and arc's of jumps?
Well what it comes down to is that in SF4 you really only have two ways of moving... walking and dashing. Dashing sucks for some characters, backdashing sucks for a lot of characters, and jumping is usually medium to high-risk (except for divekick characters, who in a lot of matchups can jump at very low risk).
KoF has walking, running, and multiple jump angles for all characters, so spacing is very hard to pin down against someone who is moving. In SF4 it is not too hard to be at the specific spacing you want to be at by just walking forward into it. Since it is hard to adjust your spacing in SF4, you often see matchups played out at specific ranges. The exception to this rule is, of course, characters that are way faster than most others or characters that can jump at low risk.
The trend is that in a game with few universal options, some characters are strong enough to really screw characters -because- those universal options are the only thing the weaker characters have to deal with them.
More universal options (such as extra jumps, generally better backdashes, guard cancels, etc) allow more characters to defend themselves against strong mixups and also allow a more varied neutral.