Thing was they didn’t give him anything of value to replace what they took until AE. Super Gen was one of the worst characters in the history of all SF4 versions (not THE worst but still really awful).
The nerfs going into Ultra were sort of dumb to be honest, but they weren’t nearly as crippling and the compensation buffs were okay.
Can Gief not whiff punish E.Ryu St.HK? I understand Daigo has goodnight footsies and everything, but I can’t help but feel that Snake doesn’t know the matchup as well as Daigo does, which is a huge mistake when going into a tournament with multiple E.Ryu players.
Gief is not a character you want to figure out E.Ryu with. You just want a different character. Character loyalty only works when you don’t have those polarizing matchups.