In my opinion though, Cyrax, Jax, Sonya and Kenshi is the type of diversity I'd like to see in SF. Dude with metal arms, cyborg, woman who shoots purple magic and a blind ninja with telekinetic powers.
I agree with you for the most part but would still like to point out with the comparison to diversity between your four (which I like btw) and the kombat kids:
Jaqui (vs Jax): Woman with Hi-Tech Gear. (not a partial cyborg but she's still black)
Cassie (vs Sonya): Woman who enhances herself with Green Magic. (not much of a diff here)
Takeda (vs Kenshi): Ninja with Telekinetic Powers (Not blind though, but Kenshi isn't a ninja he's a swordsman).
Kung Jin (vs Cyrax): An ex-shaolin warrior monk and archer. Diversity bonus he's gay. (despite my best argument here Cyrax may still win this one unless you really really really need some LGBT inclusion, sorry Jin you were my least favorite and it had more to do with cheapness and less to do with sexual orientation which I couldn't care less about).
The other 3 match fairly well (by intentional design obviously) it's just Cyrax vs Kung Jin that tips the scales here, lol.
Most people on this forum are friends which are huge fans of SF and the more human characters, they hate the more magical and monstrous characters. Don’t give them air to breath.
I love supernatural things but I still also like some of the Earthrealm characters. My consistant top faves are Scorpion, Kitana, and Johnny Cage. I like ALOT of other characters and the rest of my top 10 or so fluctuates so hard because I love so many of them but those three are the only consistant ones.
Sorry to the enraged Sindel fan but she only killed EVERYONE in one game. They FINALLY gave her a shining moment in MK9. Before in the old timeline her only story role whatsoever is being a plot device for Kahn's invasion in MK3, being the Macguffin in the game, and a failed attempt at being a replacement for Kitana in the roster. The only one she really managed to kill was (extremely unfortunately)... herself. It was an awesome middle finger to Kahn but ultimately failed in its symbolic or practical intent because MAGIC. She's certainly a popular and well known character and maybe top 10 iconic from specifically MK3 but overall series top 10... not so much. She's close though once you get through the MK1-2 characters and get to the rest. I've got absolutely nothing against her. I played her and Cyrax in MK3 until they finally UNreplaced Kitana and Scorpion respectively in UMK3. She's just rarely been important to the story besides being a literal plot device unfortunately for her and her fans.