Cage is good, no one is saying otherwise. I just think some of the shit people claim is funny as hell. Someone said he has GOOD ZONING. If you sit fullscreen and throw off projectiles all day you gonna lose that battle a lot of the time. Sure, zoning ain't all about projectiles, but the projectile arc is good in some cases whereas it sucks in others. It's a decent projectile, but playing keep out game with Cage wont net you any results lol.
Here's what's next, Kotal Kahn S-tier, has amazing pressure and nice zoning.
Still, his ground game is amazing. I think why some people wanna claim he deserves a lower spot is also due to his demanding execution, but that's not something to take into considerations in tier lists, it's about capabilities. That being said, he has some amazing block pressure. His air game though, is extremely lacking. Some say he doesn't need to jump - I previously said that makes no sense. If people start to realize Johnny's footsie game is dope, they wanna avoid it. Kung Lao also has a good ground game (Johnny has arguably better advancing moves, but Lao can definitely hold his own). One of the reasons Kung Lao is so hard to deal with is because you can't JUMP IN/OVER Kung Lao. Johnny Cage is on the polar opposite end of the spectrum. His options to deal with crossups is bad. Kung Lao has a lot of things to scare the opponent with, whereas jumping is a much more reliable option vs Johnny. I'm glad this thing was improved with the lastest patches, however - they have seemingly made jump ins for Johnny even worse. Now Johnny HAS to space PERFECTLY in order to achieve this only to get anti aired by a lot of the cast. Im not saying he has no options - I've seen our dedicated Johnny players do anti air jabs on occasions, but I've also seen them fall victim to jump ins as well (at Majors, because for some reason, casual practice matches hold no ground, dafuq).
I hope this is not seen as downplaying, but honestly people, you can't just write f3 in every Cage discussion and expect it to ignore his flaws. Yeah, f3 is an insane normal, but one move don't outweigh everything else. He should be in the same spot as Jax, Erron and Kung Jin.
Not saying he needs buffs either, Johnny is well suited for professional play due to his strong footsies.
TL;DR
Amazing ground game, bad air game = A tier or at least in the tier with Erron, Jax and Kung Jin