The characters are fine. It's ridiculous how many people think they've "learned" a character just because they've memorized their moves list and learned a few combos. I'm willing to bet the poll reflects that same ignorance.
MK11 has more depth than the majority of recent fighters. The only real exceptions I can think of is T7, GGXR2 and MAYBE SF5. All of which were created before the latest unified attempt to make fighting games easier.
that's wrong. the big "unified push" to make fighting games easier started specifically with sfv. there hasn't been any "change" since that point that mk is suddenly the pivot point of. sfv, tekken and rev2 all were specifically designed with mechanics to bring new players in (sfv more than the others and this was specifically stated as a goal.)
so no, in lieu of the 'simplification' of fighting games mk11 is just the latest in a long line. if you somehow try to make the argument that mk11 is part of a new "unified attempt," then i'd like you to tell me which games came out after t7, rev2 and sf5 that was super complex and aimed at
not catering to newer players. this is because if it started with sfv/t7/whatever, and then was "restarted" with mk11, there needs to be a gap in-between there.
Thinking you need artificial engineered 'depth' to make a fighting game experience deep is the mark of a player who hasn't been around very long.
Unless you're already playing the game at the absolute highest level, there's likely a ton of depth/subtlety that you're missing and it's part of the reason why others are better than you.
all fighting games have artificially engineered depth
by definition. they're designed by humans with specific ideas. if they didn't have artificially engineered depth, the alternative is to have randomly engineered depth, which basically means the devs throw darts blindly and hope they make a good game, which wouldn't be indicative of a good developer.
guilty gear is "artificially engineered" to the point that OSes are integrated and planned as part of the design of the game & system itself. so saying fighting games don't have artificially engineered depth is the mark of a player who doesn't understand fighters at all. especially given you're saying complete nonsense anyways. in this game after your day1 training mode session (where your 'ok' day1 combos turn out to be the optimal ones BTW) there is nothing left to learn about your character.
after that point it's only about drilling timings (i.e. getting your 1f links down so you can jail into highs, or drilling your flawless block timings) and punishment timings. those are the only things that still can be "practiced" in training mode and then the only thing you've got left is playing the game. in this game you get 2-3 options, and then you get to do them over and over and you can get better timing at doing it.
all other fighters have significantly more layers to them. if other fighting games are chess, then mk11 is rock-paper-scissors.