I don't know how to apply it to your "catch" (very interesting catch, by the way), but as a single player only fighting game fan, I hate,  HATE coin-munching CPU design in older games. 
Which wouldn't be an issue, if fighting game devs or companies weren't so fucking lazy, and re-balanced the CPU for HOME RELEASES. 
There are soooo many excellent classic fighting games, like Street Fighter Alpha 3 for example. Amazing roster, music, animations, presentation, and great single player content too. 
That as a offline player, gets utterly ruined by the AWFUL CPU design, that wasn't AT ALL touched in the home releases. 
Hard is great, cheap and TRANSPARENTLY unfair, is just annoying. 
Alpha 3 has the potential to be my favorite game ever, period. But I fucking hate playing it. Because exploiting the annoying CPU is not fun for me, it's fucking boring.