>>715759912I dont think that's actually true
I think people think that because for the longest time (and to a pretty big degree, today still) fighting games have done a terrible job teaching players what fighting games are actually about.
At best, you'd have training menus where you can practice combos, look up inputs, etc. but the meat of what actually decides who wins? What's plus? What's your mix? What do you ACTUALLY do to play the game? A whole lot of nothing. And, unlike most other genres, that's not something you naturally pick up by "just playing the game". It's virtually impossible for any casual players to develop fighting game instincts from trial and error or first principles. So, these casual players didn't really understand these games, treated them as either incomprehensibly deep or dumb button mashers.
Compare that to something like Starcraft or RTS games in general, something also considered as having a high skill ceiling. All the things that seperate a pro from a noob there are readily apparent to the noob.