The game IS guessing. Well, prediction would be more accurate. You are trying to use past actions to predict what someone will do. If your prediction is wrong, then they get out of the corner. You think someone is going to block low. You use a command grab. They jump. Your prediction, or guess, was wrong.
Yes, being in the corner is advantageous. It's advantageous for THE ENTIRE CAST.
The only reason I said anything was because someone said that if opponents keep running, they'll end up in the corner. Well, they might end up in the corner. We might dominate them in the corner. They might not end up in the corner, and even if they do, they might correctly predict what you were going to do and escape immediately. Then the chase continues.
Okay. I think it's safe to say we prioritize things differently in this game.
I agree with your last paragraph, with a caveat. In the corner, you can guess and get out. This is true. However I simply feel that it is up to the player to maximize his pressure and damage in the corner, and to do this via the use of conditioning, to minimize the need for prediction.
To take that further, I think that Bane shines if you can force your opponents into these guessing games, while conditioning them into making the guess you want.
I'll use an example from SF4 Abel. If I can force the opp to block a stepkick, then I dash cancel and I am now at point blank range with +1/+0. This is where the majority of the mixup comes in.
The opponent can block, throw, attack, backdash or jump. Block and attack lose to EX Tornado Throw. Jump/regular attack loses to my attack, which leads into full combo. Throw beats my attack and EX TT, but loses to regular TT. Backdash beats all these options except Overhead attack from me.
You would think that opponents just backdashed all the time, right? Well they don't. Surprisingly, most opponents stop backdashing after I tag them once or twice with overhead to knock them out of the backdash. Additionally after I land OH, they reset into the perfect range for stepkick so I can start the mixup again.
In general. after the first failed jump or backdash, people sit there til I throw them. Then they start trying to mash out, which I usually counter by attacking into full combo.
I've been playing Abel since the game came out consistently, and people still get conditioned the exact same way 4 years later.
I think Bane is viable because he has the tools to produce the same situation as above, but without stepkick. Instead his armored grab beats attack, grab, block, and even backdash at certain timings. Therefore the only real "escape" is jump as you said. But if you start conditioning them to abandon jumping with uppercut and double punch, eventually they will stop jumping and you get to start the command grab/meaty combo starter mixup again.
In a regular match, you only need 1 or 2 combo starters to take your opponent out with judicous use of meter and venom. So, you have a 33/33/33 mixup. 33% to command grab into another mixup. 33% to combo starter into 40-50% damage (venomed/metered) and 33% to get a knockdown with double punch or upper to lead into kd, back into pressure.
Therefore, the mixup is 66% in your favor. The reward for the mixup varies depending on what you land, but the opponent has only a one in three chance of picking the correct option. I will take those odds any day.
Edit: I'm not trying to exacerbate the argument, I'm just trying to explain my position. I will refrain from antagonizing Big Aug and I would like to instead present my points via explanation, as shown by the wall of text above.
