I actually had similar concerns to what the OP was saying, didn't want to post something like that however due to the resulting backlash lol.
I recall watching the ATP podcast were Rip described the alterations as not to drastically different. This only means that the BETA is like this, the resulting game could be entirely different, so any speculation doesn't hold much weight. Despite this, I do have a few concerns:
1) If the variations are too similar:
- Then how would that make a potential bad matchup better? V1 might be a 6-4, but V2 and V3 could be a 7-3. The grooves won't solve every characters bad matchups (to think this is naive in my opinion). In some cases, they will make them worse. And if all three versions suck, and I'm not a character loyalist and want to win, wouldn't a tourney player just pick a different character that covers the match up better?
- Or likewise, V1 could be an 8-2 while V2 and V3 is a 7-3. Gives you a better chance, but still a shitty matchup. If there's another character that is clearly better, why wouldn't a person switch to another character entirely?
2) If the variations are drastically different:
- This increases the chances of matchups being covered better however....
- Then one version of the character may handle the majority of the cast better, making the other versions useless.
Of course this is mere speculation at this point. However, I still think it should be discussed in a CIVIL manner, instead of going at each others throats. I think the versions is a smart idea, but man, there are a lot of ways it could backfire.
In a perfect world, each character would have all 3 variations be able to deal with all the matchups. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure this won't be the case. However I don't want it scrapped out like the OP mentioned. All I know is NRS has put a boat load of stress and rebalancing issues on their dev team. If it works then great, if it backfires, pop open some popcorn and enjoy the oncoming knee-jerk reactions that will flood TYM after the 2-month honeymoon period when the game drops.