I was one of those in favor of variations (at least for one year after release) because allowing custom moves with the idea of "make you own fighter that fits your style" is not real, since people will always find a build that is just better, and illusion of variety would be that, an illusion. Nobody is gonna pick weak moves. And also, it will give them time to balance them, and allow them later renewing the game.
But honestly, this "variations" NRS is giving us are underwhelming at least:
- No synergy between moves
- No relation
- No gameplan
Let's compare with MKX, where variations are well implemented. You had Predator, where HishQuTen was no doubt the better variation. But many people (myself included) picked Hunter, because of traps and how drastically they change his gameplay. Moves had synergy, they made sense. All this shlt in Mk11 just feels like we are playing with characters built in a "Create you fighter Edit Mode" for a cheap $ 9.99 game.