This is going to sound odd, and I get that I'll likely get flamed and called out for a moron or what not, but I ended up dropping Cage due to the community's opinion.
To put it simply, I've always thought Cage was solid and could fight anyone. I enjoyed putting in work with him, getting the run cancels down and figuring out how to handle different characters with his tools. I never once said he was low tier or argued for such madness. Hell, the worst I ever thought of him was that he was middle of the pack at the beginning of the game due to the attention everyone placed on safe 50/50s. Since then, as I grew to understand him and the game's meta, he's just been rising and rising in opinion.
The problem is the split in opinion. I don't think he's top five. It's nothing to do with downplaying or denying his strong tools. It's just that such a status as top five/three/one/whatever doesn't exist in a vacuum. He has strong tools and can fight anyone. But his tools are fairly one dimensional and it just seems like there are a handful of characters that have more versatile tool sets and can get more mileage off of their tools for less effort, between setups, damage, pressure, mix-ups, etc. (Two tangential points: First, I haven't seen the new patch so he likely could've floated to the top with further adjustments to characters. Second, execution shouldn't be a barrier for viability but to think that a maneuver which is easy and less likely to be screwed up in the heat of battle is equal in viablity to a more execution-heavy maneuver is a little silly.)
But the problem is I'm wrong. It's not a matter of opinion or discourse or what-have-you. I'm just wrong. Anyone who questions his placement as top 5 have been thoroughly shit on and put on blast and decried as the worst downplayers and community since Sub-zero or before. And this ruins it for me. I don't flock to top tiers. I honestly play the characters I like. And Cage is about the only character I like in this entire game. But apparently, it's just impossible for me to comprehend is super-awesome-top-tier status and my opinion will always get shit on and ignored. And because of this, my wins always feel hollow. When I lose with Cage, I can only think of how god-awful I am at this game. When I win, it's because of the character I downplay. I can no longer enjoy him because my pride has been broken.
And so now, I don't really play anymore. I've done this in the past, handicapped myself to insure my victories come only from my skill. But I can't really find a low-tier character to play because none of them are interesting to me.
There. Rant(?) over. That's why I dropped my main. Go ahead and flame me for being a braindead downplayer. It'll never be as annoying as how fucking inept I am at understanding the one character I enjoy.
I mean...he may call in some REVENANTS for backup every now and then...but he's still the star of the show.