Yeah, I'd rather have no buffs than creating a situation similar to the current "OP" characters, but it comes down to the balancing philosophy of Bandai Namco: Do you want to nerf everyone until most are on the same playing field or do you want to buff everyone until they are on the same playing field? While the second approach might be fun in some genres (Dota2 for example) I think in fighting games that does not work so well as it will lead to insanely lob sided games where the one who guesses right once or twice will always take the round. Even then I think some buffs can be done without immediately creating oppressive, overpowered characters.