Bull.
There are way way way way way too many issues in regards to reliability, ability to get the knife, retain the knife, damage output lost in neutral, damage output lost in frame traps, safe jumps lost, defensive tools lost, offensive tools lost, corner carry lost, mobility lost, metergaining lost, ect over the limited number of things gained.
Knife is pretty good in specific situations and exceptional in one or two. You’re fooling yourself or trying to fool others if you think or claim the knife is "amazing
Even in your own matches I’ve seen you rarely are as effective with the knife as without as you lose access to badstone, focus, and crLP/clsMP/clsHP all tools you use very effectively (For me it’s the loss of F+MP and crLP/crHP that really hurts but you are really good with meaty clsHP and closeMP tic throws as well as badstone zoning). Especially the loss of badstone and focus hurts your own playstyle in a ton of matches I’ve seen. You either end up giving up a bunch of the stage, getting counterhit during the startup of a move, doing less chip than you would have with badstones, or spending more time trying to get the knife after losing it than time pressuring the opponent.
It’s simply not consistent enough or effective enough even when it is consistent to be called anything better than “situationally useful” or “pretty good in certain matchups” certainly not “amazing” if it did more chip, or Cody had Dudley walk speed (not even Vega, just Dudley) AND he could use focus and F+MP then yeah it’d be pretty darn good, still a situational tool but one that has a variety of situations it’s consistently as good as not using it in addition to the couple it is better.
I advocate using the knife in several matchups if you are having trouble with specific aspects of them (using knife crMP to counter ERyu fishing with his crMK for instance can be effective), I love exploring with the knife and trying to find ways to make it more useful. It’s a mechanic I think has some super interesting possibilities gameplay wise beyond simply being Gen’s stance change but only allowed in super specific situations. In the end though, it’s not where it needs to be and certainly didn’t get the changes it needed to be there.
btw, All of Cody’s crouching normals with the knife are considered standing.
Also the hit/hurtbox with the sMK with knife is basically the same overall. The thing is that the attack reaches farther, the hurtbox ALSO reaches farther. It’s not “better” than sMK without knife in terms of hit/hurtbox it’s better in terms of reach allowing it to be used from farther away but the actual ratio of the hitbox vs hurtbox positions and size is the same.
The fact knife throw / fake stone / fake knife doesn’t cause proximity blocking until it’s actually active is incredibly frustrating in specific matchups vs characters with fast backwards walk speeds, only knife and badstone (while charging) do that of any projectile in the game. All others cause proximity blocking on the first startup frame. Even Yun/Yang’s Feint Palm strikes cause proximity block.
