My biggest problem is people who argue in defense of what a clearly a mess a game.....a no benefit to them.
I don't think most people are being super defensive (and a lot of those who are do it to troll people upset about it). And for those who only play local and/or online vs. mode their is the benefit of being able to buy and play now since they don't care about the missing modes anyway. The only really shitty part for them currently is the servers are still spotty, and missing some online features like spectating, lobbies for more than 2 etc.
I think most everyone would have preferred Capcom have all the content ready for the scheduled launch (at at least all but the story mode worst case), to not ber missing standards like Arcade Mode, Vs. CPU etc. Even if they don't play them, most acknowledge those are standards, and many people enjoy them.
Reasonable folks (like myself--at least I hope I come across that way) are just saying they're glad to be playing the vs. modes now, and those who want the other content can wait until it's out to purchase. Rather than it being delayed overall and making us wait too, when we won't play much of that content anyway, outside of the online features coming in March.
In general, I have no problem with this type of pseudo early access release when:
1. There's enough content at launch for me to want it then rather than waiting.
2. It's a publisher/dev I trust to come through on their release schedule.
Both of those are true for me with SFV. I'd get my $60 worth out of just online mode and the 16 launch characters. Much less knowing there will be six DLC characters this year, more in future years, and no need to buy an upgraded version of the game for balance updates and new characters like with SFIV.
Others mainly play offline and need to wait until the single player stuff is all out to assess if it's worth their money then, as it's clearly not now.
That's why I don't have a problem with this release approach as it just gives people a choice on when to buy, rather than making everyone wait until both the single player and multiplayer are ready for a genre where a decent chunk of the market really only plays one or the other.