It's part of the strategy, and mind games, etc, and it can set up more potential damage, MK is a lot about potential damage. For instance with Sub-zero if you do his auto combo, and leave off the last kick, if you do for a standing HK, even blocked, the blocked hit does more damage than the last hit, and it also knocks them across the screen, and you might want to pour on the pressure, usually with Sub you can get say, freeze, jump kick starter, HP, HP, LP, LK, HK, standing block HK, standing blocked LK, then usually they will try and jump away or run in, any way you slice it, you can get more damage. With Jade, it's fun to stick in the D+LK at the end of her 4 hit combo, it does 1% less than if you do her 7 hit combo, starter or not, and then you can stick in something like her dash kick afterwards which gets people a lot, doing the full combo can allow someone to get away afterward. But remember, not every character lands close enough after her combo toi get the D+LK, and a lot of characters can take an unblockable standing LK, which will make them sell the hit ducking, and that does more damage than her 7 hit combo, and a few can take a standing HK. Jax can do this as well in his 7 hit combo, leave off the F+HP and do a standing HK, it can hit a lot of characters before they even hit the ground. Jax can also snag Sub-zero and another Jax with his gotcha mid combo.

Matt