"No attack range." Yeah it's not like he has 3 as an 11 frame poke that doesn't stick his hurtbox out, AAs fantastically (And his AA combo from it leads into his staple oki mixup) and is safe on block against everything that isn't Superman's super (Which if he has to make safe, he can use meter to be +). Nor does he have one of the best dashes in the game, both in overall speed + distance or the fact that it goes under highs. Seriously though, he doesn't need to jump anyways to start his gameplan, and his chains are good ranged block punishment. If you haven't fought Green Lantern using a character who can't punish Lantern's Might outside of close range, then you don't understand how good Lobo has it in that department too. Yes landing his command grab in neutral requires a lot of respect, but it's not like Lobo doesn't have ways to easily enforce that.
As for his close mixup game, he's also got a 10 frame low string that's + on block, only interruptable by supers, and gives him a free shell if you so choose. Players with bad reactions or who are unfamiliar with the character will get bodied by b2u1, and even if they do instant jd3 is safe and unreactable if you do it right. Oh and both those options lead into the aforementioned oki that literally forces them to wakeup attack if they don't want to get thrown for about 40% damage with meter. Said combo also leads back into the same wakeup situation. Lobo can both force and capitalize on respect, and when he does he gets to run a strong offense with fewer variables than a significant portion of the cast, and he has the damage to back it up. I'm not saying he's automatically top tier, but with a bit of exploration it's clear that he's a legitimate character at the least.