You can have a fighting game where (just about) everything has a use, but just don't expect to be able to/want to use all moves in every match, and don't be upset to see a small cluster of moves used much more often than others.
I'm going to be that broken record and say an example is the new VF5FS, where I couldn't find useless moves for any characters I played, but situations over a number of matches called for different things. The movesets have been streamlined so that you've got tools for most situations and multiple ways to set things up, but little redundancy. (Example, my main, Pai, lost a number of her additional counter hold moves that were replaced with handy midrange strikes that she needed. She didn't need more counters above her basics)
This will work for DOA too, as like VF, you can reliably do damage with a small section of the moves and close out a round, and then you can try doing those same things the next round and they may work, or you have other go-to moves.
Rounds are over so fast that often there just isn't time to try a lot of things in one round, so things play out in more varied ways over a number of rounds.
Of course, whenever there's an opportunity, people will use their old reliable combos or setups. That's what allows people to show individual flair in their playstyles and that's as ideal as it needs to be.