I'm just gonna accept that this kind of F.U.D. will happen with the release of any major fighting game.
when people like jwong, ultradavid, or any top player talk shit, it's not set in stone. They're players with opinions and quirks like anyone and they will bounce back and forth a lot, publicly, as they play.
I'll put more faith in people's assessments of the game when the game develops. For now, I saw too many overlong, meter wasting, scaled-to-hell combos and about a hundred missed opportunities for a safe switch to a healthy character this past weekend.
For now, gameplay-wise, there ain't much to criticize in the game itself. besides the gem system because nobody knows what the hell to do with it (to keep it or not to keep it) and Capcom's "fix" is probably the best example of a company not listening and not getting it and just throwing any old crap in there to get people to shut up.