Developers try to make it so every character is in the same league, but at the end of the day, no one can predict what toolsets will be overpowered or not. Sheeva was bad in MK9 because NRS was worried that improving any one of her tools would make her top tier. Kabal was OP because NRS didn't realize... well, I actually have no fucking idea why Kabal was made the way he was. Once they realized he had the best rushdown pressure in the game, they should have nerfed his zoning, but what's done is done.

Anyone who insists on playing a game competitively with a character they actually like needs to either pick their favorite out of the top 12-15 or find a secondary character that covers their main's bad matchups.

Let the record also show that low-tier characters do sometimes perform well in tournament. 16-Bit's Catwoman just got 2nd at a major.

Yeah I don't think that Hanky understands that fighting game tiers are something that's developed by the community playing those games. It's not overt intentional game design from developers. I mean sure, devs do loads of QA testing and have an idea on whose good / balanced (and possibly OP) but it's not like they're deliberately establishing concrete tiers. That's why tier discussions are constantly evolving.

Injustice is a prime example. After the last "big update v1.06 patch" several months ago characters viewed as OP were made more manageable and characters viewed as low-mid got buff'd.