Lack of representation does not necessarily mean the character is bad, occasionally (but not often) it can be that but there are other reasons as to why a character could be underrepresented. Let's look at some examples: Digit and Indecisive played Shazam in Injustice who was relatively low tier, Insuperable and Dink played Quan Chi who was relatively low tier in MK9. There were rarely many Kenshis in competition, and Batgirls, but that doesn't mean the character was bad nor does it mean there were no other mains for that character.
Well, I'm pretty sure xSmokex and Max have been playing Shinnok since the start, and there aren't many Kano mains that enter competitions besides maybe Decay, Hippo and Coach Steve (at least right now), none of which have been at majors recently as far as I'm aware. Lets not be too hasty here...
We don't need him to be easy, we just want all his tools to work properly.
I agree and disagree. I think it somewhat is preference, but also because of the character. There are specialist and loyalist in every game true, but if he was as good as the "he's perfectly fine, Top 10 character who needs no buffs" believe him to be then there's no way in hell you wouldn't see him more. As much as people like you and I love our character we main, there are many manyyyy more people who look for the "Top 10 character that fits their play". Which is why so many people who started with Kano have either dropped him now or picked up Top 10 secondaries.
A perfect example of "player loyalty" vs "tier whoring" is Bojutsu Kung Jin. EVERY tournament and many locals where bombarded with Kung Jin's the first few weeks of release. At my local the 2nd week there were 3 Kung Jin's in Top 8. At the tournaments pools were filled with Kung Jin matches followed by more Kung Jin matches. Why? Because everyone thought he was the best in the game. The same character that was universally bashed, laughed at during the Kombat Kast variation reveal, had by far more representation than any other character. Fast forward to today and a still Top 10 Kung Jin is seen half as much as he was before. Why? Because he was slightly nerfed while also people seeing he wasn't the best.
Also, Kenshi kind of goes against that argument. A year and a half into MK9 I think 75% of the player base had pocket Kenshi's lol. After a while you couldn't watch a Top 8 anymore without someone losing and pulling out their pocket Kenshi in game 2 lol. I doubt all those players with pocket Kenshi's even liked the character, as his player pool in MKX is much smaller, but they jumped on what they thought would win.
The people who will go with their character out of "liking them for the character" is few and far between. Like, you know Pig will play Kenshi and Bit will play Kitana, but many other people pick up the game and look for who they can win with that compliments their style. They try out characters and end up playing Raiden, QC, Cage Fam, The Kung's, The Brigg's, D'Vorah, The Ninja's, Erron, etc. Then they look at Kano and say "Who? Yea right. I got a tournament next week". That's the main reason why I think we don't see him used much.
