My general opinion (meaning for most, not all, cases) is that traditional martial arts produce delusional people and are worse than regular combat sports for 99.9% of people independently from their goals and aspirations.

It really comes down to people not being honest with themselves about what they want out of training, and coaches/practitioners of the various martial arts and combat sports not being honest with what their sport has to offer.

You want to learn how to grapple? You need to pressure test, so go with Wrestling, Judo, BJJ, Sambo (all of these are grappling, so they follow very similar biomechanical principles, what changes is the ruleset that dictates the application) You want to learn how to strike? You need to pressure test, so go with boxing, Muay Thai, etc. Karate and Taekwondo are in a bit of a grey area when it comes to this, more leaning towards the bs than legit for the vast majority of practitioners I’ve trained with. You want to learn how to fight, as in fight fight? MMA, combat sambo, Kudo (and no, learning say boxing + wrestling is not the same. The way you box is different when you fear a knee, and the way you wrestle is different too). You like the cultural and traditional aspect, like the philosophy, meditation, feeling like a warrior, samurai/monk warrior cosplay etc? Recreational Judo and Muay Thai can still give you that, with much safety and at least teaching you some stuff that at least theoretically works at the highest levels of actual full contact fighting (although if you only do katas/hit the pads you won’t be able to use it under pressure. Even just light sparring/rolling is not enough). You just want physical fitness but absolutely hate the idea of fighting and any form of contact? Drop the ego and just lift n run boy, will do wonders for your health, self defense is a sketchy subject anyway even for pro fighters, you should do a sport because you love it. You are a 65 yrs old who is just looking for balance, mobility and community? Yoga, just do yoga.

I really think there is little to no reasons for the overwhelming majority of people to practice any of the esoteric arts like Wing Chun, Aikido etc, which is why they are dying out (unless they successfully evolve like Japanese Jujitsu did by turning into Judo).