IDK. When I first saw the game I wasn't sure who it was going to work for. I've played enough fighters to know it was going to emphasize things I'm not good at, and lacks an element of insanity that the general public probably needs to have in a fighter to enjoy it. I figured I would skip MK11.
I didn't skip it. I wasn't working when the game dropped, seeing everyone play it all day, I figured I would just jump in and see.
I get the strait forwardness of it being a problem for people that see something once and just know it forever. I don't have that problem. Turns out the simplicity of it helps me a lot. I struggle to remember all the raw information it takes to do anything a lot of other fighters and I have to be hit by stuff a good 1000 times to start recognizing it. I personally find the "Labability" overhead on a lot of games insurmountable.
There is this common line being tossed about trying to compare everything to Tekken. I love Tekken. I spent months before MK11 with it being my main game. I desperately would like to keep playing it, but I also suck at it. It's too much to keep up with and that's coming from someone that has zero life and just plays FG's every night. When I went to figure out how to keep Josie from just mashing punches all day I had to write it all down because it was just too intricate what it took to shut down a base level mash strategy. I have no idea what all it was, and it's long gone from my brain. The game sets you up to just mash hard like a wild man or go super deep and learn incredible amounts of information about their giant roster to keep from getting BS'ed to death. Knowledge definitely shuts down BS and starts winning games consistently after a certain point. That's great. Tekken's great, but I don't know that means everything needs to be Tekken or the same thing works for every game. I don't want every game to be the same thing and I don't want to have to focus on one character in one game forever because that's the commitment it takes to be even remotely functional at it.
In MK11 the simplicity actually ends up opening up far more of the game for me. I can learn more than one character. I can often see the game working under the shenanigans and can start working on solutions. I'm learning and focusing on how to play the game, not everything 40 characters can do. I'm enjoying myself more, and exploring more of the game because it's more digestible. I'm also better at it I think then any game I've played before. Part of that is finally starting to understand how things work in these games, but a lot of it is not having that massive overhead on education. There is plenty to learn across the game as a whole, and I don't have to just stay in one tiny corner of it. I know that's not going to be everyone's experience, especially for more competent players, but that's my experience and it's far more positive that I thought it would be going in.
In regards to what variations would do, I don't think it changes a lot, but even if only half the cast got a third, it could be nice. I think a lot of people thought (including me) 2 would be a good amount to focus on doing right instead of having just more. I think it's hard to say. I think MK11 can probably better support 3 than MKX did, but more isn't always better either. I guess I don't have a strong opinion on what happens there.
On random, I do think the KL resetting points offers a chance to test the waters for custom variations. Why not have a single season that lets people go nuts? It not the same kind of competitive, but it would let people have a moment for that sort of thing, and people that want to see how broken a build they can make can flex those muscles. It's not a good, long term competitive standard, but it could be a fun thing to offer the player base for a few weeks run and then reset and move on.