Some characters in this game are solid. They seemingly have decent tools if you isolate them from context. For that, they are "viable." But when you compare them to the actual top tier characters, what those characters have, and what you need in this game to be a truly top character, suddenly these "tools" pale by comparison. I feel characters like Kenshi, Takeda and yes, Kung Lao (in before shit storm) fall in that category.
So before talking about how good some of these characters are, compare them to Kung Jin, Cassie, Sub, Quan, Erron Black, Jax, Raiden, Jaqui, etc... Then we'll see how good these "tools" really are.