You've told me zero I don't already know. These games don't appeal to casuals the way they want. They possibly never will. Throwing an extra 25K in the Evo pot is not going to kill any of these companies. Monster Hunter alone saved Capcom from being bought or going bankrupt. They can invest some of that into SF if they want it to grow and flourish. This isn't the 90s anymore, and the business model is different since they can't make a grip on coin op machines any more. The reason they should invest into pots:
Unlike the big E-Sports games, there isn't even the ILLUSION you can make a living playing their game. I've been playing Magic: The Gathering since the 90s and they're going through the same thing. They had their own Pro Tour, where if you did well enough, you would get aifare and at certain levels an appearance fee to go play tournaments abroad, along with whatever you won. The company sold itself to Hasbro, and since, has cut the Tour, and keeps scaling back the prizes. There are no "stars" any more. You can't make a "living" playing any more. If the game wasn't so ridiculously good and addictive, it would have failed by now. The FGC NEVER had this. They ALMOST did with the advent of the CPT, but Capcom is so worried about their own events, and not the community as a whole, it stagnated. Someone a tier under Idom, who top 8s semi-regularly, should be able to pay his rent, car and basics by grinding, before becoming a walking billboard for some team. That's how you get people fiending to get to that level, and investing time and money into mastering a competitive sport.
Look at this guy:
en.wikipedia.org
He was good at one game, and had his own computer part line, and drove a FERRARI. He was a gaming nerd, but looked (at least surface) like he had a good life off it, and got p*ssy. THAT'S why fools were going crazy trying to play high level Quake III. You can't expect people to dedicate their lives to shyt like that for crumbs. Justin Wong should be as popular as Daigo is in Japan. A poor immigrant kid from NYC that took on the world, the marketing writes itself, but no one tried to capitalize (Triforce did, but he failed on some fronts, along with a huge dose of racism).