I've actually talked to Tokido about the game back in season 1. He was very critical about it back then too, saying the game felt random and there were many things Capcom had to fix. Ultimately, I don't doubt that him and some of the other players I've talked to wanted to move on from SF4. I don't get to talk to he top JP players regularly, but it's a pretty small group saying shit like that. Meanwhile Bonchan is literally calling the devs retarded. Infiltration has said the game got worse. Every time I interviewed a top NA player about the game, I had to edit down or steer the conversation around them taking huge dumps on the game every other minute.
I'm far from some big shot, but I'm somebody that has worked intimately with the top people of the FGC at various points, and what you're telling me is a much different story than what I experienced firsthand. SF4 was something people were ready to dump and people don't want to return to. That was the sentiment I remember. I also remember the sentiment that SFV avoided some of the issues of SF4 at the expense of being awful in so many other places. Again, I had these conversations with real pro, semi-pro, and even just pot monster level players. Pulling up the sentiments of a couple top JP players isn't going to suddenly change that fact, especially when conversations with them have proved to bring up a lot of grief at the same time.
Also, if you think that was the appeal of SF4 and that SFV doesn't appeal because it's not like that, you're at a level of understanding of the SF series where I'm not sure you're really qualified to be saying things like this about it.