Well if you allow a parry out of block through a gap in a string it will be used constantly in high level play. Especially if it isn't something that needs to be meter burned. Why would anybody waste their meter on burning a move through a gap when they could just parry their way through for free. And they will know when the gap will be there since they would have to have burned through it anyway. So they wont miss it.
You can react to almost all the normal's in the game. And adding open frames after the normal to allow you to get your parry in will make them more react-able. For example, if a move is 5 frames and you have a 5 frame window to parry, that becomes a 10 frame move. I just used those figures for my point. But what its clear enough. So a parry wont be hard.
Adding a universal parry to the game would make all the parry's that are in the game already useless, who would use a character specific parry when they can use the easy one trigger parry.
The animations in the game are a little exaggerated at times, to make it better to look at. But a punch looks like a punch. A kick looks like a kick. And turning around looks like turning around. You can't even say it looks like an abstract exaggerated parry or dodge. No real fighter moves like that. It is inefficient. Looks silly when thought of as a dodge or parry. And sticking with the WYSIWYG understanding of any game or table top, What You See Is What You Get. So the animation would have to be changed.
As for the casuals complaining. The general attitude they have is that they don't like execution barriers. I myself prefer to have a game with techniques and moves that I can't do. Makes me happy to keep trying. But as I found out in another post, not everybody sees it that way. So it will irritate a lot of people just because they can't do it. Even though we have discussed that it wouldn't be hard to do since it will work in situations where others are reacting and counter attacking any how.
And a parry should never be a guess. Guessing is not something players should be doing and encouraging it isn't a good thing. A parry should be done on reaction to make it fair. And if it can't be done on reaction in some very limited situations, it should be done on a read. So making it so hard that it has to become a guess wouldn't make it worth it. And how would you make it that tight anyway. By adding 3 frames for the gap. Fine at that level it may have to be a guess on the first hit. Which means nobody would bother to try and parry or dodge on the first hit since they can wait for the string to finish and get the damage, or wait for the gap and get the damage. They can skip the gap and wait for the end of the string because the universal parry system makes it so no string is safe. Or they do choose to fire it off in a gap. Regardless of when they do it, it will be super easy because they know exactly when the hit will come. And this is all going in circles now and leads right into......... Why would anybody meter burn through a gap. If a parry is easy, even at its hardest level, and free.
There is no reason for stance switch. I highly doubt it is in the game because it was meant to have one. It is there because they didn't have anything else to put on the button. If they were willing to change the properties of it, they would just be willing to change it to something else. Such as a short hop. And since this has become stale, because it has boiled down to me and you going back and forth over a move that looks silly and wont be hard to perform while taking so much away from the game. I propose a solution. Instead of a stance switch goofy dodge, and instead of a very cool short hop idea, what about a small sort of jump type motion.
But after reading your posts again I have noticed something very important. You do think a short hop is a better idea. And I agree with you, it is a better idea. And you are welcome to claim it as your own and make a poll for that. You will have my vote supporting your short hop idea. And probably
@RagsTheGoat 's vote as well.