The thing about a high skill ceiling is, it will draw in the super competitive game players, while also drawing in the casual crowd too. Before I knew about AT's in Melee I had a blast playing with me and my buddies from school and my neighborhood, but when I found out about the AT it drew me in even that much more realizing I could learn a couple things and even have more fun by doing better combos, speeding up my game play etc. So its really a win win, which is why I don't understand Sakurai's overall understanding of things. Like Milktea said it's obviouslt horrible to forget about the casual players, but why go the other way and forget about the competitive players? Which I would argue is partly responsible for the success of some games. This being said there is nothing wrong with smash 4 either. In fact the lower skill(or tech aspect you could call it)ceiling has probably drew in people who were previously intimidated by Melee high ceiling. The thing about it though, is once you put in a little bit of practice, and you start to realize you are actually learning and getting better, its such a great feeling and extremely encouraging and makes you want to just keep practicing. The problem Melee had before I think is that there weren't many accessible local tourneys for new players to start out at and learn from and you could often be thrown in with someone who's played the game much longer and obviously better so you really didn't feel too good about it or feel like you learned much from it. Thankfully now almost anywhere you can find a local, or people from facebook groups or smashboards to play with and get better around your same skill level. Not to mention the thousands of hours of videos, and data on the game also helps. So the process is a bit less harsh now a days. Just the fact that sm4sh has almost not AT's, or at least that I know of is kinda disappointing to me from an competitive stand point. Sure it's an amazing game already, and extremely hype at point. I do think that something small added in would really just appeal to a whole lot more people. Maybe dashdancing and L canceling. Maybe just Wavedashing. While its hard to say if wavedashing would have a place in Sm4sh, I definitely think DDing and possibly L-canceling could. So overall what I am saying is, I think in the long run a high skill ceiling floor is important. But as long as there are patches and new characters being released that is a sufficient bandaid fix for now. Hard to say what the future holds though. We've seen what the high ceiling of Melee can do to prolong the longevity a game. Now we got to wait and see what the other side of the spectrum holds.
By the way guys, this is obviously just my opinion on the question. Please don't attack me because your opinion is different. Do appreciate civil conversation on the topic however. :)