What happened in the past, is in the past. The original seven playable characters should always be in. It was a mistake in MK2, MK3, Deception, etc. to let some of them out. And look how it turned out, with the sole exception of MK2 which included outstanding new characters, every other roster that tried to replace them with 'new blood' crashed lol
I don't know if it was Vogel, Boon or the comics guy, who "announced" the new generation as in "taking the torch" and retiring classic characters. Whoever it was, was clearly senile. And if the fans proved anything, was that they didn't want their favourites and ICONIC characters to be left out for who knows how long because of some "new generation".
NRS realized this. And they brought back the best newcomers from MKX, leaving behind terrible characters like Ferra/Torr, Kung Jin and Takeda. Maybe Jacqui wasn't popular HERE, but some people liked her. I know people that liked her, so...
And every fan and their 'perfect roster' is almost unique. The only thing close to a 'perfect roster' would be a 'dream team roster' like MK Trilogy or Armageddon. I know Armageddon was awful, but I trust NRS to make a good game by putting in every character from MK9-MK11. This is just an example. Of course some "pros" are going to complain about this. This kind of game is not for you. I bet you said the same thing about Trilogy and Armageddon. And regardless, they were played for fun. It's okay for videogames to be fun.
As I was saying... it's impossible to make a 'perfect roster' out of thin air. I want Hotaru. I'm probably the only person here who wants him to come back, and I'm not mad about it.
I'm a Mileena fan, and a Shinnok fan. I know Mileena is out, and Shinnok is probably out too. I'm just having fun here. And I'm totally okay with this because I have 25 awesome characters to play. Sonya, Cassie, Shao Kahn, Kitana, Skarlet, Baraka, Kabal... you bet I'll be playing with all of them! I already had lots of faves out of MK4 and guess what, I love that game!
MK11 is shaping up to have one of the best rosters in the whole franchise. How can any MK fan not see this? Lots of classic characters coming back, some even missed MKX and now they're here, AMAZING new characters, and those new characters coming from MKX are looking better than ever.
If anything, maybe the 3D era is a bit mis-represented. We haven't seen Frost yet, and we don't know if anyone else from that era is coming back. It's a shame some of those characters are bashed on a regular basis just because it's a meme to do so.
Truly awful and terrible characters like Mavado, Darrius, Dairou, Kobra... maybe is best they're definetely out. But some others have great potential. Characters like Kenshi, Quan Chi, Shinnok, Tanya, Bo Rai Cho, became awesome with 2D mechanics and being revamped the way they were. You know what I'm saying?
Just my opinion.