So, the argument that must be made at this point is what constitutes skill in the first place. There is much more to the game than an untrained glance would suggest. There is of course the execution barrier, one that separates those who can perform proper combos, frame traps, and setups from those who can't, and even those who can perform basic game functions from those who can't, in the case of less-experienced players. There is the character knowledge barrier, which separates those who understand well their characters' tools and options better than those who don't, along with the related matchup knowledge barrier, which favors those who are more knowledgable about certain matchups. Similar to games like Brawl and the 3D fighters, there is the stage knowledge barrier, which favors those who understand how their characters are affected by certain stages.
HOWEVER, there are also metagame skill barriers which must be acknowledged. Certain characters are better than others, which is true in every single fighting game. Certain characters beat other characters on a skill cap level with varying degrees of certainty. What this means is that part of being skilled is making effective choices! This means choosing the good characters, the counterpick stages. This is part of leveling up, part of adapting! You cannot deny that part of the strategy in any fighting game is the little game that takes place on the character select screen, the one in which you try to pick the character most likely to beat your opponent. Now, we're not all perfectly skilled with every character, which is where the human factor steps in, but it only serves to reinforce the point that refusing to adapt by choosing better characters is denying growth in one of the key strategic elements of the game.
