I like your no win scenario, because that’s more or less what I imagine to be the case. I know Capcom, and I know they hate doing things correctly the first, second or sixteenth time. I would hope at the least, they could sync the two versions of the game to play with the same delay. This preferably would mean decreasing the PS4 delay, not increasing the PC’s.
If the PC version has 4.9 frames of delay or what have you, then I’d to think they could at least get it down to that on the PS4. However, there’s also the fact the PS4 literally can’t even run SFV without having a seizure. The game is horribly optimized.
Delay does not mean that footsies are going to cease to exist. Have you ever played online in previous fighters and seen footsies and confirms? Yes, you probably have, and you’ve probably done it yourself. However, it will always be to a degree less than you are capable of. It’s funny because online tournaments were shunned for so long because “the lag would make it biased.” Yet here we are, with a game with permanent online, and not even like… really nice connection online when it comes to the PS4, like “Oof, this guy is kinda laggy” kind of connection.
I know Japanese players don’t complain outright, but to be fair, Japanese people are generally either completely silent about something, or extremely vocal about it. I imagine most pro players are just like “Eh, nothing I can do about it.” It doesn’t mean they don’t notice it. This is most especially true for the veterans who have experienced the non-delays of old. However, they’re experienced enough to, as always, adapt, don’t complain. They’ll play it however it is, but that doesn’t mean they may not secretly dislike it. Think of how many voices came out about SFIV when that game finally wasn’t the only SF choice for the tournament scene. People bottle it up man, and they’ll keep doing it because it’s their job, and complaining doesn’t help them win.
For other people however, complain away, so we can see these pros play at the level they deserve to play at.
You can be indifferent, but all I want, is that if someone was to ask you about the input delay, that you should probably be saying something like “I wish it was less, but it is what it is.” That’s a fine response. It’s the people (and there are a surprising amount of them) that are saying it’s fine, and that Capcom shouldn’t bother wasting time fixing it that bother me.
More frames to an already frame related problem. Delay is pseudo start-up frames when it comes to reaction time. Though I would agree that the actually 5 frame start-up is more an issue for Gief. I think it’s very likely he will get start-up buffs in season 2, even if it’s just on his EX.