Play a game because you like the game & not what everybody else think. That's another problem too. People don't play a game because they like the series for whatever reason. Instead, you have some who just go with the popular crowd rather than using their own judgment. The game isn't bad (imo). Every fighting game has its problems. So if you're listening to "he say, she say," or "who say", then you're basically just going off by what people tell you. This isn't a salty post either. Far from it because I play other fighting games. Just DOA is the 1st & main one that I play because I like the franchise. It was my 1st competitive fighter.
The reason why people think "DOA is a titty fighter" & "it's all mash" is because of what the overall fan base requests for costumes (a casual one), the DOAX side series rather than what would make the game better, & people who don't understand how the mechanics work. Out of all the fighting games, it's the easiest to pick on because the community has always been known to be small with very few people going to tournaments supporting the game. People like Rikuto & Sorwah who do their best to discuss the game's issues to Team Ninja (personally) can only do so much for the game.
It can't just be like 9 or 10 people doing something. Mortal Kombat 9 has lopsided character balance but since people within the community love the game so much to the point they come out to tournaments & play it anyway, it attracts a lot of newcomers. MKX is going to be bigger. Ultra Street Fighter IV, again, the numbers are there, everyone is voicing their thoughts to Capcom to improve their game offline & in general. So ultimately, it's up to the community (us) to step up.
So people who keep making all of these gestures towards the game are doing more harm than good since it's not helping the case. Especially when it leads to "you don't go anywhere" (& let's be honest, some haven't). Plus, you have people who refuse to listen & learn along with a lot of stupid ass fight among ourselves. It's one of the reasons why I hardly go deeper than the character community forums. You try to explain something to people & then when you do the right thing such as critique a player with weaknesses, correct a person when they're wrong about an aspect of the game that they didn't know about, or just help them in general, you get slammed with "You're an asshole" or "You're an egomaniac!" or "You're such a scrubby-ass player!" So lose-lose situation.
Just like this topic, when you have people to tell you what you don't understand, you have people who try to tear down a fact about the game with an opinion when you can't. It has to be a fact supporting your argument. Yeah, it's about what you would do about the ground game, but it's also people posting who didn't understand how it really works in the game until now (& some still don't understand).