You saw more Kunimitsu players than Kuma and Panda, and Ganryu? Probably Wang and Zafina too. Characters that are also rarely used. I believe it. Yet the way everyone was clamoring for her for so many years you'd think she would have been one of the top 5 used characters or something. Very reminiscent of the 3D era push the vocal minority makes currently. In reality, no one really cares except a few, yet they think everyone wants the same. For every Kunimitsu you saw played, you'll see 15 Law or Paul or King players. Harada even tweeted about his disappointment in the lack of usage of what he thought was a great design update at the time. The only way it's different is if the character is top tier, like Bob in T6. It's more of a luxury to have characters like that added than the demand that it's made out to be.
I'm not comparing the games, they are obviously different. There are many complaints here because MK "keeps bringing back" the OGs, kids of old characters, the Cage family tree, etc, but every game does this because that is what the majority of people want. You don't really see people in Tekken saying "wow I am so tired of Heihachi throwing King of Iron Fist tournaments every single game since 1995. Why are there two Jins in every game, is one Jin not enough?? They need to skip a game for Baek and Ganryu". It sounds insane typing it out, but this is literally what some people are doing for MK.
But like Tekken, this is not abnormal. Like SF with Ryu/Ken/Guile/Zang/Dhal/Chun-Li/Sagat/Bison/etc. Like KOF. Like Soul Cal. Etc. People don't want to play MK games starring Taven and Drahmin or seeing Mavado in a big story role. They want the Scorpion, Raiden, Johnny, Sonya, Kitana, Sub, and Liu Kang's of the world.
Most MK games outside of the 3D ones are stacked towards the OGs though either way, some more than others. MK9 roster speaks for itself, MKX had half the roster of favorites with even the new characters related to old characters, and MK 1-3 is clear enough. I'd expect nothing different from MK11. When they do grab from the 4-3D era they take the few good characters (Kenshi, Quan Chi). Headlines would read "MK11 has the lowest sales depression for a fighting game since Soul Cal V" if some members here were in charge of the story. Not ironically however, for the same exact reason.
*Havik sucks slightly less than the rest of them. Let them all die in the 3D dumpster fire. Buff Kombat Kids.*