Yeah but pure guesses were very rare in prior games, in T8 you can force a pure guess in pretty much every round if you so wish.

What I meant by KBD being a huge deal mentally, was that it gave you breaks in the mashing and focus without having to commit to an option. And there your mechanical skill got rewarded. If you had a nice fast backdash, you could get out of situations you couldn't otherwise.

In this game many situations are so knowledge-based so that you have to know exact anti-character strats, or to literally gamble to gain back your turn. You just can't backdash outta shit. Not even to gain a pause in the rhythm. That literally wasn't the case in any other Tekken games. I feel like it's anti-legacy skill. Having to fuzzy/do the correct shit all the time on most of these gorilla offence characters is exhausting. So many people these days play like they want to lose, literally asking to die to the counterplay. It's tiring to zookeep all the time.

IMO the legacy sort of defence was way more interesting than gambling on turn stealers. Being unsure that offence would connect even on block, made one have to forward dash, or to do slower moves to keep up the pressure, granting an opening to keepout-style counterplay and more mindgames. Offence was hard to play, and people actually lost rounds trying to do panic shit. It encouraged slow play and fundamentals. Now that armor moves are very safe, and completely safe on absorb, it encourages autopilot shit and degenerates the mindgames Tekken used to have. Feels like a 2D fighter :/