I guess most characters have at least one variation that people can relate to in some way or another. All characters have at least some sort of light zoning variation with the ability to slow things down and a close up pressure oriented variation. He does not have that and is easily the weakest character in the game.
A projectile is a fundamental part of all previous 2D MK titles across its 24 year history and he is the only one to lack this. This is not street fighter.
By not having this in a variation, it precludes a range of people not being able to use him effectively. I was really excited about this character and was heavily requesting for him to be added. Unfortunately for my playstyle, he is basically unusable. While I understand that is my problem, I am not the only person who feels like this. Ultimately his playstyle is alienating. At the moment, he plays like he would be better suited to a 3D fighter. With a couple of tweaks, he would be more at home in Tekken or something.
There's plenty of characters without variations that speak to me. I don't think they need to be changed just to appeal to me. Bo Rai Cho might not have a variation that's made for zoning, but he has one that's made for dealing with it in Drunken Master.
I don't get what Street Fighter or Tekken has to do with this. Not every character has to fit a certain mold and even then I don't get the SF comparison.
Bo Rai Cho might not have a traditional projectile, but he has tools that no other character has. He gets a full combo starter with a ton of active frames, a metered Crop Duster that might as well be an ice clone that doesn't go away on hit or block, in the corner he can do 50% dmg into a restand that gaurantees a 50/50 with just one bar, can force you to eat back to back to back 50/50s if he has the meter and guesses right, he has some of the best resets in the game, unblockable combo starter, rolls and invincibility frames, easy armor break setups in corner, etc. He was designed with a heavy weakness to zoning and spacing but was given tools that would be broken as fuck in other character's hands. To me giving Bo Rai Cho a real projectile is like giving Blood God an armored reversal, like giving Tremor a fast mid, it's like just trying to eliminate a weakness that was designed into the character. Could he use buffs? Hell yea, but I think giving him a projectile isn't in the spirit of the character's design.