I feel like taunting shouldn't be tied to any type of direct in game benefit. Otherwise players might end up in a situation where they'd rather not taunt simply because taunting isn't their thing, but by not taunting they'd be passing up a situational advantage. Besides, isn't part of taunting supposed to be that you could be using your frames for something actually worthwhile, but instead you're wasting them on something meaningless like taunting, simply because you can and you're that confident in yourself?
Taunting used to give you a tiny percentage of health back if you did it. If it we're to come back it would be best if it we're heavily managed. Have it tied to stamina or meter.
Risk/reward.
Thought I'd explain a lil further. It was a mechanic used in Deadly Alliance. You would taunt and gain a small percentage of health back. So if you were side stepings or playing footsies or whatever you would taunt.
Yes it was slow. Some taunts were better than others and you could use it after a HK or when the opponent is rolling back.
Kinda the same strategy you would use in any game that had taunts like SF, Tekken and others.
Like I said it would reward you with small heatlh if you used it within reason. I found it kinda neat back then.
The older games had a lot of useful things that are still in today's game in some way or another.