No. DOA will get popular once a competitive scene is formed. Trying to change it into something it isn't is not going to change that. You're just going from making a game better to screwing it up completely. Work with what it is if you want to make a better game. Not make it what it isn't.
There is competitive scene. It's just not as big as the other scenes right now. Needs more people supporting it.
@MasterHavik, Ed Boon went back to the way MK was played back when the 1st 4 were released. Those were the things that made MK9 popular & that's why it's popular today. MK was still popular when MKDA was released, but it began to get negativity because of the way the gameplay was set up. That's why when the others were released (MKD, MKA) everybody thought they were dying off. I'm a die hard MK fan. Fans stayed on Ed Boon for the longest on why they took away what made MK what it is today. So Ed Boon rebooted the entire franchise, drawing in the old 2D crowd back in. So in order for them to do that, they had to put THE most popular characters that made the franchise, with Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Raiden, Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Kitana, Mileena, Jade Jax, Reptile, Shang Tsung etc being amount that top list. That's why the 2 you mentioned didn't make the cut. Just so happens that Quan Chi & Kenshi grew a big popularity when they were brought in.
Capcom did the same with SFIV. It had died down, went back to their roots to what made it what it was with extra new mechanics. That's why they made those changes.
My point is if they take away what you're talking about, don't you think that would take away from the crowd?