Capcom 100% could have put more money into this game. Not necessarily a lot either, just enough to smooth out the presentation and keep the S1 characters intended for launch in the launch roster. Which would have fixed 2 of the biggest complaints right there.
How do you know who was or wasn’t intended for launch?
There’s no way to know 100% because we know so little of the game.
However, I’ll say that Monster Hunter, Black Panther, and Sigma seem like strong candidates for base roster omissions. I mean, all 3 (T’Challa and Hunter share 1) of them have a stage they belong to in game and are present (one is the other half of an antagonist) in the actual story. The other 3 actually seem like legit DLC characters. I wouldn’t be shocked if they were removed from the game so they could be sold as DLC.
The stage thing is a good case, and it even looks like their scene was leading to a playable fight. I can buy that.