I don't believe the more recent iterations capture that remotely as well.

100%. Smash4 is not mechanically suited well for competition because its become much more about counter-playing and reading rather than balance between all parts.

Essentially what I'm afraid of is if SF5 is made to have simpler controls and easier ability to pick up and play it may damage the possibility for the competitive scene to move to the game and everyone will still just play SF4.

This is my same worry, and why I said I don't think its worth the risk.

You would have to completely redesign all of the charge characters because none of their moves would be balanced in concept without destroying the frame data on them.

Oh yeah, I totally know that. Part of the reason I heard Charlie was in was because of the removal of Charge characters. I also heard speculation based on Chun-Li's footage that she might have been redesigned to remove her charge moves, but again, its speculation. If they keep Charge characters, they could probably add better UI to teach, or even confirm, a charge for new players. In the latter, you would need that information to be asymmetric, presumably, because you don't want your opponent to know a charge is possible (or maybe not an issue since knowledgeable players will know that now?).

But yeah, the frame data would need to be revisited. The 3DS version of SF had presets for macros, and I heard Guile was godly because his Sonic Boom could be placed on a macro, effectively letting him spam it, although I didn't play the 3DS version, so just something I heard.

But definitely, we agree on a lot of points. And that's my larger point: does SF really want the Bro gamer install base? Or would it be better to help those who want to be good while increasing the flow of information about the game? My foot is firmly in the second case, because I don't think SF is made to be like Call of Duty or Arkham Asylum, nor should it be. Then it just won't be SF.