yeah I'd still probably recommend playing on a stick to most people, I just think they're a lot less "necessary" than a lot of people make them out to be, at least for some games/characters.
So anyway yeah, balance. EVO and SBO seemed indicative that the game was a bit better balanced than some people would complain; a Noel won EVO and she's mid tier, Carl made it to top two in SBO and there were two Litchis (and I think a Bang) in top eight (though Arakune won the tournament and there were two Nus in top four). What people who support the game's balance like to ignore is that the Noel that won EVO was a guy who lives in Japan, and that SBO is crazyjapanland single elim nonsense. So until recently there really hasn't been a major NA tournament that fairly showcase's the game's balance.
Well, West Coast Warzone says "sup." Final four was Nu, Nu, Arakune, Rachel, all top tier. Final two was Nu versus Nu, simultaneously the best and arguably most boring character in the game. So especially with there only being 12 characters in the game to begin with, I think it's pretty much 100% obvious that the game could really really use a balance update of some sort. Then there's the fact that Nu and Arakune are pretty much designed to be assholes... I'm not entirely convinced that say, just lowering their damage output would make them interesting characters to play as or watch. I'd like to think that a balance patch would see Nu and Arakune, and probably Carl for that matter, reworked a little bit. But hey who cares, I play Jin, who's even or better with like the whole cast lol.