Alright, I got home, I took notes, and I'm going to undulge ya with a fair shake.
BALANCE: To a lot of people balance refers to how close characters are to each other, and which are vital. Under those conditions, this is the best balanced Mortal Kombat game to date (I didn't play the Injustice Games).
However, you specifically talk about balance at the highest levels. Your argument, as I understand it, is that the game is not balanced at the highest levels of play. To that end I agree with you. Watching every streamed tournament game there is a lot of diversity at the pool stage. However, once pool are concluded it's the same few characters, S-Tiers like: Geras, Jacqui, Sonya, Erron. Then a few more that are character specialized; Dragon's-Cetrion, Tweedy's-Baraka, Foxy's-Kung Lao, Samiij's Kitana. Then you might see a meta-buster like Johnny Cage most recently. There is clearly 3-5 characters that are better than everybody else and that's not idea, but it's not terrible because there are a lot of characters that can be brought up to compete with those with some character specialization-more than any MK game before, and more than most fighting games, and that's a great accomplishment for NRS.
POPULAR V. GOOD: Scorpion is the most popular character in Mortal Kombat. The "GET OVER HERE!" with the spear move is ICONIC. Additionally he is the favorite character of Ed Boon, and he is the character used in basic tutorials. Scorpion is undoubtedly very popular, but is he good? Someone may want to fact check me here, but I believe that Scorpion usually resides in the mid tier, sometimes high-mid, sometimes low-mid, and sometimes smack in the middle. I don't think he has every been elite, but I also don't think he has ever sucked as you claim. He is a strong, honest, fundamental character that does his job-being an ambassador to the series and teaching simple fundamentals.
TRASH AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL: Well, like I said he certainly isn't dominant, but as you stated he already dumpsters casuals, and newcomers. If he was stronger at higher levels he would probably alienate people away from the game-he would have Geras syndrome where he is very strong and it is also easy to implement that strength. Geras is the worst kind of character and you do not want this for Scorpion, it hasn't happened yet but usually by the end of a game's cycle these type of characters get nerfed into the ground. Alternatively if a character is both very powerful, and very easy and allowed to remain that way, it can kill games.
THE IDEA CHARACTER/THE TRIFECTA: You mention a set of characteristics; Oki-Throws, 9-11frame Mid, meterless launcher which you call the trifecta. Then additionally you include Fast Movement, Easy KBs, and strong anti-air as desirable perks. I think that is a fair argument, and a reasonable way to look at balance-tool kits, and I would be interested to see how often A and S Tier characters have all 3 and some of the others. I would be interested also in characters in those tiers who do not have those things. I main Cetrion, she does not have Oki-Throw KBs, her fastest mid is 14 frames, and she does not have a meterless launcher that I recall (Call me out on this if I'm wrong), but she does have incredible movement, and she is considered S-tier in a lot of lists... but is that Cetrion or is that Dragon? Dragon consistently takes her to Grand Finals, but I've only ever seen one other Cetrion player and it was someone who plays a wide range, not a main (Big D or Kombat I think). Usually when a character is that strong there are more players using that character. Just food for thought.
CONCLUSIONS: I agree that Scorpion is not great at the absolute highest levels of play, but I think that he is fine where he is. I view him as a set of training wheels. He does a lot of things well, he has a gameplan that is easy to understand and implement. He helps new players learn and feel good, but eventually you want to pick a more complex character and ride a big boy bike. He is viable at most levels of play, but at the highest levels, more complex characters SHOULD be more dominant and they are. I also think that you down play his neutral, and his ability to dictate the pace of a match. Scorpion decides what happens and when it happens more than any other character in the game. This is why he doesn't deal damage as easily-he gets an easier and more varied initiation-he is going to hit you more than you hit him. This is why his damage is low. My main Cetrion works similarly-low damage, but also very hard to hit and with multiple opportunities to hit her opponent. Scorpion and Cetrion do not need to be strong in the Trifecta area, because they are insane in other ares, movement for Cetrion, and neutral control for Scorpion.
That's how I feel.
