Kudos on finding and presenting this info, much respect - would love to see more - would you be willing to denote changes character by character? Also good that you've got the game and you're trying it out. So while I think that's all really positive, I have a point of disagreement.
How can you say the change to the counter windows is not significant?
It's significant for a number of reasons;
1 Players have said the counter hold windows are an issue, so ANY move by the developers to change this is significant.
2 The reasoning for them doing this is either because a) they listened to us or b) they came to the same conclusion on their own or c) both. This reinforces point one and tells us they are doing a good thing with this aspect of the game.
3 Mechanically this can only tighten up the game and reduce the importance of "guessing" or "betting" however you look at it. The fact is the counter is open for less time, meaning players have to be more sure of when to do a counter, and the ability of the other player to punish is increased, so mistakes are more costly. This adds up to the attacker being more assured when they have advantage, and this is great because it shifts things more away from another general criticism of DOA4 in that it was too defensive.
4 You don't mention the reduction of damage, which, by itself is significant, but in concert with the above, is a subtle but important change to this aspect of the game. And when balancing a range of systems, changing anything universal MUST be subtle and measured. (Look at the changes to SSF4 to AE - subtle changes, but people claim it to be a whole new game).
Perfect Legend himself has said he feels this changes the game for the better. I know you're disappointed with Dimensions, but downplaying the areas of game design where they HAVE done a good thing hurts your argument when discussing other areas of the game.
Lets not get so hell bent on attacking the credibility of the designers by undermining our own. They DO know what they are doing. The DO know how to achieve different outcomes with the game. The question is one of understanding their goals and communicating our own, so that we can be more aligned.