In the sense of actually transitioning someone from a casual player to someone with a deep understanding, simplified controls are really a band-aid. It's a good start, but it's not going to teach players nuance. It'll make them feel like they can make something significant happen, but the thing that's needed most is detailed tutorials and trials which drill them on core fighting game skills.
They need to be taught what a high-low mixup is and which characters will most likely try to hit them high vs. low. They need to be taught when a character might go for a grab. They need to be taught how to close the distance when their opponent is using full-screen projectile attacks. Really, they need to know the kind of stuff you'd normally learn from a more experienced player sitting next to you. But most people don't have that. So the best substitute is a really detailed lesson plan. It'll never happen in a Capcom game.
I look at it in two different ways.
1) Auto-combo shit is more of the band aid you speak of. It's for button mashers and it works for them at the level they care to play at, and against the players they play against (buddies at a get together or whatever). They're fucking around and want to see cool shit happen, and people who take these games more seriously are offended that these options even exist when they can get turned off because we assume they'll never get good enough for.. something that these filthy casuals don't care for anyways.
2) Simplified controls, like universal launchers, magic series combos, which allow for a quick pick up and understanding of a character's boundaries, strengths and weaknesses for players of all skill levels, that do not impinge on the complexity or depth of the system just because they are not assigned to arbitrary or more difficult inputs. Those additional complexities can still exist and the inclusion of these things do not usually threaten their existence because optimization becomes the name of the game pretty much immediately after release. Hell, even before.
Both of these are accessibility concessions but so long as they do not threaten to cripple the combat system, which they rarely ever do (at worst, homogenize the roster a bit more like in MK), I don't know why people that intolerant of small concessions. Goes back to the whole idea these games aren't made for just people like hardcore tournament-goers, and those consumers are the majority who balance the budgets and make sure that these games continue to exist.
The linear perspective of turning casuals into hardcore players kind of creates a weird assumption behind this whole issue.