I think it's stupid to say that if someone hasn't used a particular character, he shouldn't be allowed to have an opinion on that character. Still, it's obvious that those who are saying how great Johnny is either used him very little or not at all.
The only thing you said that I agree with is about his pokes. Scorpion, Noob, and Baraka are the only characters I can think of that can out D4 Johnny, because of their pokes' range.
Cage's force balls are good, but you can't block after using them. If Cage and Kano were to trade projectiles, Kano would always win, because he can block immediately after throwing a knife. Force balls are meant to be used intermittently, and I'm assuming only after F4 too, because both force balls whiff after F3.
Cage isn't just lacking when it comes to crushing blows, he just doesn't have anything viable period. I have over 1,000 matches with Cage, and I landed his mime parry crushing blow only once online. I landed his amplified nutpunch crushing blow only once in the towers of time. I landed his F43 crushing blow about 6 or 7 times which came down to luck, or my opponent was trash.
Conditioning and annoying your opponent works wonders when you're playing only one match in Kausal then quitting. When playing sets against good players, that's where you notice what little effort was put into the character. Almost every match ends up with your opponent simply blocking low and turtling, anticipating grabs, because without grabs, Cage is worthless. Good players aren't going to let you constantly throw F3s out without spamming pokes or uppercuts. It's very easy to break away from grabs in this game. You can't rely Cage Rage, because sometimes it doesn't even charge properly. Sometimes I have to use it 5 times in order for the unblockable punch to proc. Fun fact: Cage Rage was originally supposed to be Scorpion's move, but it was given to Cage at the last minute. Which further proves how rushed Cage is.
His second variation needs to be completely reworked. There's no argument here. Playing without a variation is actually better. In my opinion, the specials in general are gimmicky and stupid. A camera flash for a stun move? How ridiculous is that in a fighting game? Why even use Cage if he doesn't have access to his nutpunch?
It's not fair that we have to work 3 times as hard and actually think about what we're doing, whereas Jax can just vomit out those bullshit overheads at whim. Most good Cage players aren't even asking for an overhead, just some buffs, yet everyone is shouting how great he is.
I'll go as far as to say that NRS is trying to ruin Johnny Cage for obvious reasons. Cage was always arrogant and always talked, but he always backed up his shit. Especially in MKX as he defeated Shinnock. In MKX he had funny lines, but he was mature. In MK11 he's just a douchebag with a trash moveset. In the story mode it always looks like he's wearing makeup, and he wears these ridiculous, over the top, bright colored pink and purple outfits.
Somebody should remind NRS:
Johnny Cage should be A tier (he isn't right now) not only because he's an original, but because he's the reason, not Liu Kang, why MK exists. He deserves buffs.
Back on topic about Sub Zero, I don't think he's overpowered, but his overhead is too fast. It was a blatant lie for NRS to say this kind of stuff wouldn't exist in this game, but 50/50s high damage combos still exist for some characters, the popular ones that is.
I also play Johnny Cage, along with Sub-Zero and a few others - I am not one of those people who is merely theory-crafting about a character I don't personally play.
It is hyperbole to say that Cage has absolutely nothing that is viable when I and other Cage players can name nearly a dozen positive qualities that Cage has. He has excellent backwards movement, which is needed for his bait-&-punish/conditioning playstyle. He also has far-reaching kick normals that either lead into a +5 nut punch or condition the opponent to block and not spam pokes & uppercuts.
Cage's straight fireball does indeed allow him to block/duck afterwards, but you have to throw them out strategically. Their strength is that they have really fast start-up and good recovery, so you throw them out when you think the opponent is going to try to approach. I have footage where I was playing against a Sonya - who we both know has an even better fireball that we do - and I threw a straight forceball a split-second before she threw her fireball; I was able to hit her
and had time to duck her projectile.
If you try to base his gameplay around his tournament variations and unviable KBs, you will indeed struggle. For now, you'd be better served by ignoring his KBs and focusing on his strengths, which include an 8-frame, +17 on hit D4. You mentioned that Scorpion, Baraka and Noob (Sub-Zero should also be included in this) all have D4s that out-range Cage's, which is true. However, all their D4s are double-digit start up, especially Baraka's, which is slow as hell. You should never get hit by Baraka's D4 as long you have good spacing and F4.
You are also correct to say that Cage is all about making the opponent block low to anticipate grabs, but grabs are 50/50s in this game. You're going to need to mix your forward/backwards grabs after a blocked F3. But even with the opponent blocking an F3, you can mix the 50/50 throw option with a back-step into B3 or F4. You have to unpredictably mix up what you do to a blocking opponent with Cage, which means not relying on moves such as Caged Rage. It really should be used sparingly, such as to clutch out a round. And it should be mixed up between throwing it out in neutral against a block-happy opponent, or by attaching it after a blockstring. You even have the option to jump in with J2. It has a good range and leads to a throw/plus frames on block.
It makes little sense to proclaim that NRS set out specifically to ruin JC when they gave him so many good things (fast forceball, amazing pokes, low-profiling, a +5 re-stand, good jump-ins, plus frames, great movement). They also set out to make sure that everything he does has a weakness/counter, just like they did with every other character in the game. His abilities/KBs do indeed leave much to be desired, like that camera that you mentioned, but him JC as a base character definitely has enough strengths to compete against good players.
Plus, this game isn't anywhere close to being completely discovered, so for all we know, JC might already be A-tier and we just don't know how/why yet. There was Kung Lao tech discovered just the other day that could move him up a few notches. Raiden was thought to be mediocre at launch, but that mentality appears to be quickly changing. And then there's Sub-Zero - he was thought to be at the very top of the tier list at launch, yet NRS's best player, SonicFox just came out and put him in B-tier and demonstrated why he thought so. He showed himself blocking not only Sub's 50/50, but his 50/50 vortex setups. And he kept consistently blocking these 'unreactable' 50/50s for minutes at a time.
We have only just begun to scratch the surface of everything this game has to offer - there is definitely more tech to be discovered, so it's way too early to be waiving certain characters off as unredeemable or all-but-impossible to win with. And it's still far too early to be asking for JC buffs, other than KB fixes.
Yes, there are characters that require more work to be successful with, but that's true in every fighting game.
And yes, you're going to need to think about what you're doing in the neutral - that's a trademark-quality about this game in general.
Every single character in this game has to be strategic in what they're going to do, or they will be whiff-punished, KB'd or anti-aired.
This applies even to Geras, Sonya, Erron and Sub-Zero.
Each step, dash, jump, normal and special move ought to be thought out before being thrown out there because if it's ill-timed, you will pay for it in this game.
MKX wasn't like this and that's why it has a overwhelmingly negative reputation. NRS has made a masterful game in Mortal Kombat 11 that has every component to become the very best game they have every created, once its idiosyncrasies are ironed out.
Let's do this; I will make a thread in the JC Forum - if it already hasn't been made - with in-game footage of Johnny matches against the best opponents I've played. I invite you to post your match footage there too.
