that's true but in that state of the game ruthless is not top 5. these character are better without a doubt: acidic alien, tarkatan alien, demo sonya, cutthroat kano, swarm queen dvorah, shirai ryu takeda, ronin takeda, piercing mileena, a-list johnny cage. not saying ruthless is bad but how in the world do you see them being better than any of these lol.
the ex low toss hasn't changed shit against his ability to counter zone better, the tosses have absorbed projectiles since launch but it's still a weakness. mileena,hqt or ff lui for example can zone them out for days still. it helps against characters with moderate zoning tools though.
however it's not their only weakness. their biggest weaknesses are characters with good air game and characters who can dominate in the neutral. slow walk and run speed, big hitbox and not having an advancing mid makes it hard against long range attack characters (alien, takeda)and those who have great neutral range tools(shinnok, mystic ermac).
@Doombawkz can tell you everything about lackey not being that good as you think lol
vicious isn't exactly weak but there is just no reason to use this variation when you can play ruthless and have the exactly same character with better tools.
I really hope ruhtless get's nerfed. not because they deserve it but because too many people still think there broken while characters like piercing mileena, demo sonya or alien are in this game. remember when people said after march 1st how ft now will dominate top 8s? lol