Maybe so, but it got in to begin with despite the game being trash, due to connections with the company. Look at MvC3, that game has a massive community despite the fact the pros claim it sucks(as well as the hardcore wannabes who make sure to spam SRK to tell everyone how much it sucks). Now if DOA is looked down upon by the pros and can't get that kind of notoriety, yet another game that is virtually despised and laughed at by pros can, why do you think that would be? Favoritism perhaps, because it's a Capcom fighter? This community is all about the benjamins, e-fame, and what's new, not what is hardcore. If it were, MvC2 would be the main event at EVO, and MvC3 wouldn't even be there.
MK9 is being played, yes because it improved, and also because for the first time the game was good enough where the community was inspired to get off its ass and go to tournaments and support their game. Considering people like J Wong who trashed the game, and the endless SRK posts and spam saying the game sucks, lacks depth, and the "MK9 is gonna die before/after EVO" bullshit(Capcom fans made sure to spam nonstop to let MK fans know that MK9 was shit, trash, and a failure, and will die after EVO, every chance they got) MK9 should have died. It lived because the Mortal Kombat community supported the game, and commanded respect. Everyone was galvanized, be it the hardcore MK players who liked MK9 and wanted the game to do well, to the casuals who loved blood and gore and got fed up with Capcom fans insulting their game all the time. They all banded together and ensured the game didn't "die after EVO"
With DOA you got people still fighting over the counter system, with people demanding it be gone or threatening to not play it anymore. Despite the fact the counter system is part of what makes the gameplay stand out from other 3d fighters, since you have ways to mitigate long combos instead of getting hit and having to watch that shit ad nauseum. It's a different style of game, why should it have to change to appease people who will shit on it anyway? Change the game for some fairweather players? Sure worked out for MK9 right, with them overhauling the game, just so people like J Wong can say "it's shit, it sucks, doesn't play like SF, it sucks". Removal of counters won't mean shit, they'll find another reason to hate the game, they'll bitch about it being two buttons for attack, they'll bitch about the strings being too easy to do or too strong, they'll bitch about juggle mechanics, bitch about stage structure/danger zones. Just like how with MK9 no matter how many improvements it got, it was "ah it sucks, has no crossups, block button is retarded, no chain combos like a Capcom fighter, don't like the jumps, I hate combo breakers, blood and gore is stupid" and so on.
Smash is a perfect example, because the fans support it so much, even a shit game has a huge community. If DOA's community supported it like that, it would do a lot better. The alternative is to rearrange the game completely to appease "top players" who will play it a few times for prize money, then say the game fucking blows, and drop it to go back to Marvel/SF4/Tekken. Now that doesn't mean the counter system is fine as is, but instead of demanding it get removed to be like "every other fighting game", they should just tweak it and actually make it work. That's another problem with this genre, people want every fighter to use the exact same style of gameplay mechanics, and anything that deviates from the norm gets shunned and called not competitive(Smash Melee for example). Every other fighting game with the exception of maybe MK9 has you get hit and eat a long combo, so why not have DOA be something different?
Oh and as per your Sirlin example, same thing happened with MK9, it got lots of endorsements from Tom Brady, Warner Bros putting up HUGE prize monies for tournies, and even despite the game being catered to tournament players with gameplay changes designed to make it play well and nothing like the shit 3d MK games, people like J Wong ran in and entered tournies, won some money, said the game was shit, and left. Now what would have happened if after that the MK fans got divided, with like half of them going "yeah J Wong is right, this game is shit, let's all fight over it instead of actually playing it!"? Only reason it survived was the MK community took it upon themselves to keep playing and supporting the game DESPITE the fighting game community, not because of it. DOA needs to do the same, supporting the game regardless what anyone says. Honestly I don't know why people care so much about what a top player says, these same guys claimed fucking SFxTekken was better and deeper than fucking GUILTY GEAR.