As someone who has played all fighting games and primarily plays SF and MK/Injustice, I can tell you that the reason why NRS games doesn’t get the respect as others is for a few reasons;
1). As mentioned above, the lifespan for each game is incredibly short compared to others. I don’t know if it’s WB’s push for new games or NRS’ planned schedule of new game development, but whatever it is, they do a helluva good job at killing their own games with the predictable 2 year lifespan (or life “cycle”).
2). The brokenness of high tier characters are laughable at times, then tack on the low barrier of entry. For example, Akuma has always been top tier, but the work it takes in order for someone to be successful with the character in ANY Street Fighter is nowhere near what it takes to be good with Scorpion/Sub-Zero in MK 11, Erron Black in MK 10, Superman in Injustice 1, etc. I love playing NRS games, but I get tired of getting washed by broke ass characters that make me question “how and why did this character make it in the game?”
3). For MK, the mechanics are a turn off; having to guess which way you’re going to be thrown in order to tech, having to release block in order to tech throws, a block button (not a problem for me, but I’ve heard this complaint a lot), plus the constant D+1’s with no pushback on block or hit can be hard/annoying to deal with.
Those are some of the glaring weaknesses I can think of at the moment.
