Well Third Strike was as good as SF ever gets. Definitely one of the best fighters next to VF4/5/FS
Case in point.
3s fans love the game. ST games don't care about it. That's why the best 3s players stay playing 3s ie: Kuroda, who only plays sf4 casually. Conversely you got Daigo the God who has a strong ST background and dislikes 3s. ST is more footsie based so you have a lot of overlap between those fans and sf4 fans. 3s sorta mitigates zoning and footsies with parries, it's a whole other kind of beast and arguable the least 'street fighter' of the series.