Kitana can win with her zoning, but Sub Zero lacks damage. Sure he can throw the clone, but he will only resort to that when the cooldown has refreshed. In the meantime, you can either anticipate the iceball (which is a very very slow projectile) or throw a hat at him. Especially when the Sub players are mediocre as you say, it shouldn't be too hard. I have also heard that Kung Lao's teleport can be slow to quite fast depending on when you cast it. For instance, someone explained that, activating it before you hit the ground after a jump will make it somewhat quicker compared to the standard one. Jumping will also make Sub Zero guess if a teleport is coming or it's just a jump.
I play Johnny mostly, and I lose, not because of the clone, but because I cant jump in on him at the right times. Sub Zero wins every time because of Johnny's shitty air attacks. Kung Lao definitely has a lot of tools - it's just about using them properly. Most Kung Lao's have forgot to be patient cause they just button mash that shit lol.
Kitana is a whole other game because she's just gonna spam her fans all day because she will win every trade. Armored teleport is probably the way to go with Kitana as someone previously stated
For Kano, well - Kano doesn't win solely on projectiles. It hits mid, is a fast projectiles, but can still be jumped over. His projectiles don't lead to full combos like Kitana's or Sub Zero's. I have played a lot of cybernetic, and spamming knives don't always work. Kano's tend to get a bit reliant on the knife, throwing it mindlessly in succession, not respecting Kung Lao's dive kicks for instance. Ideally, knives are a conditioning tool, not something to be thrown around recklessly. I have won games om spamming and lost some due to me spamming recklessly. Kung Lao seems to have the tools - patience is the key to the matchups, whether you play Kung Lao, Johnny, Jax or whoever you play.
I don't know much about Lao's other variations, but maybe Buzzsaw can help where Tempest falls short?
You can always main Shinnok, it takes 5 minutes in practice