MK games are pretty committed to their jump and a lot of air specials in that game are pretty punishable if they whiff or are blocked like if a scorpion does air teleport to bait an anti-air uppercut. Overall, even though you get a mixup off a jab at best (not always though depending on height, distance, and character dash speed), it's relatively much better to eat that than a full combo juggle even with the limited air mobility. It's not like it's unknown in SF4 either, you see PR Balrog jab people out of the air all the time, and Daigo did it with E.Ryu.
People complain about SF5 being too offensive, so it's weird that a decent defensive tool for a lot of characters that don't have stuff like invincible reversals is frowned upon. Especially since it's mainly just stopping momentum than dealing large amounts of guaranteed damage.