At what point do most gamers find the fighting game genre too difficult?

Often the difficulties are nebulous (from entry levelers) are never defined—they express it as an abstraction so it is hard to discuss exactly what should be improved for accessibility.

We all know (anecdotally) that anyone can do a hadouken or a psycho crusher (we’ve seen per-pubescent kids in the arcade in the early 1990s doing this.) My girlfriend did a hadouken on her first try. We all grew up with this stuff as QCF, DP, and HCB/HCF were ubiquitous in the 90s—especially at the arcade. Throw that stuff out of the discussion and give them the obvious benefit of the doubt.

So if people aren’t struggling with the hadoukens, shoryukens, motion inputs, sonic booms etc. What are they struggling with? They say there is an insurmountable execution wall and, without specifying which combos/moves, it is hard to pin down what they mean.

Are the combo-porn/execution entertainment videos to blame? Are these exhibitions causing players to try Desk/Marlinpie/Latif/Sako level stuff and assume it is entry level or practical? Is this a post-YouTube phenomena? One aspect that I believe has lead to some of the concerns about difficulty, is the rise of e-sports. Now, on YouTube, anyone with a connection can watch Daigo, Sako, Marlinpie, Latif, Yipes, etc. and assume they are the norm.

Capcom has made all of the entry level moves literally able to do on accident. There has obviously been entry-barrier and accessibility progress. However, I just don’t see what the exact option selects, fly/un-fly combos/ infinites/ 1-frame links, sjc ultras, walking 360s, or 3rd Strike parries they are trying to do that they consider as preventing them from playing the genre. This issue could be due to YouTube presenting high level play as the norm and to be expected from the average player.

What do you think is causing the frustration?