Eh, I spend a decent amount of time there, but that's not so much my issue. This game is just so fast. I'm having a hard time keeping up with pressure and reacting to things quickly enough. MK1 was a lot closer to my speed. So I'm playing a lot of online matches with the idea that eventually my brain will get used to it and catch up.
I started really late into MK9 (when injustice came out lol) and I totally get what you mean by it all being so face and not having time to think. What helped me was knowing how to do a combo... Like a proper, nice, juicy BnB that people say "Hey. This guy isn't JUST a scrub. He can take a bunch of health from me if I mess up". At this point I still didn't understand how the game played at a deep level - it was just me jumping about trying to get this combo to land; what's a neutral game? Where's the footsie button? I freaking sucked lol.
Then I watched the best of the best play on YouTube... I still didn't know what they were doing, but it was entertaining as hell! I started noticing patterns, a lot of the games looked similar. Why? I still didn't know. But I kind of started noticing whenever I did a certain special move, and it got blocked - I took damage. I figured I should stop doing that on block (that took forever to quit the habbit for me).
But I joined TYM, and learned what frame data was and how this basic elementary level math could really step up my game. I'd see someone do something and I'd think "hey, that's -X on block. I have a move fast enough to punish that!" and voilà! This was my first actual step into getting better. Eventually I started blocking more and punishing people for doing things and it turned me into an above average casual but I the top guys with thousands of wins under their belt somehow still kicked my ass. Everytime. A lot of stuff was hitting low, overhead or pressuring me and I didn't know how to deal with that - tutorial certainly doesn't help. Eventually I played some online matches with Chodenificent from here on TYM and I would do my usual crap of finish my string and mash d1 a few times... But D1 is like -15 and I was getting full combo punished by him. What!? How!? It's sooooo fast how can you punish that!? Impossible!! He explained to me that there's only so many moves that someone can do, and what you see or do isn't on reaction all the time - it's all premeditated. It's something you know that going to happen. It's just a mind game of who's guessing on what to do and pressing the buttons at the right time. After a blocked string, you're either at an advantage or disadvantage, slightly, and that dictates whether you poke or do another string or special. Your opponent also knows the exact same as you, it's just a mind game of who's going to respect who.
Eventually I started noticing people saying "footsies" "neutral game" and all that jargon and I actually looked up the definitions and then I started to study like a boss. I must of read a Street Fighter guide called the Footsies Handbook several times, watched examples of good footsies, and understood everything. At first I didn't get it. I read it and gained nothing. But I did it again and again untull it clicked and when it did it was like insta-level up. Finally I could compete online against other TYM users and I was winning. I started developing my footsies and didn't realise, it just happened. Something I read stuck with me: Fighting games are essentially glorified rock, paper, sissors games. And it was so correct! Sort of, in principle.
Basically, learn your combos, learn your options in situations, and understand the neurtal game. I know this a long post, heck I don't even know if you're that much of a noob to the game. You said you play MK1 so you probably know what footsies is but for some reason I saw myself when I was starting out in your post and I just wish someone would tell me something like this when I was starting out. Sorry if it's irrelevant or insulting to your skill level, it sounds like you've been at this longer than me I don't mean to come across like that. Just trying to help
