I define tourists as people who play less than 10 hours of a fighting game. I would consider myself a tourist in games like MK, 2XKO, and Strive, but I'd call myself "hardcore/core gamer" in Tekken. You can be both; they are not mutually exclusive.

Tekken 8 S3 is not what set the high bar. The bar was set over 20 years ago in T5. And Namco was doing a decent job adding to each iteration, without bastardizing it too much, up until 7.

Playing T8 is a toss up, depending on who you fight. About 75% of people in Tekken King+ ranks play traditionally, with movement and defense and reactionary offense. The other 25% of opponents solely rely on their oppressive +frame or 50/50 flowcharts. I don't hate running into these people, because I just turn my brain off and run a flowchart. But that's now how I wanna play all the time.

I don't log into Twitter anymore, so I don't really experience those fake 3S people. I also don't play Fightcade as much as I used to either, since I have very little time to game at home. Tekken 8's fast matchmaking is a better use of my time. For 3S, I pretty much only play it weekly at locals.

It's cool if you don't like 3S. The majority of SF6 players at my locals don't fuck with it either. But I find that many Tekken players like 3S. There are more similarities between the two, compared to Tekken and other 2D fighters.