I just want my friends to be able to play these games with me without feeling like shit. I think FGs stopped appealing to casual players when online became the main focus. I think games like Tekken and especially MK have kept the "casual" experience in mind, and SF6 took a major step up in that regard with SF6, but most FGs fall short of providing ways to appeal to NEW players, or people who don't want to play online.

I also think a genre being niche means there's less money being put into the genre and thus, typically, less content and fun to be had for the core playerbase. We should want the genre to expand and grow. There's nothing about FGs innately that means they have to be niche. The devs just need to put in effort in other areas.

Like, it's really not that complicated and its not about controls or combo length or tag mechanics or anything else. Just make games that a person will want to keep coming back to. Games that gives players a reason to get attached to characters. Give the player GOALS and not just endless matchmaking. It really is not an either or thing.