I've said several times on this site that Virtua Fighter should be its own genre. It stands out far apart from the Tekkens and Soul Caliburs. They really shouldn't be compared, because they are on very different levels.

Tekken and Soul Calibur are very newbie-friendly games with a lot of depth for people who like to get deep into the system. They are accessible enough so that even the average non-skilled gamer can go in, kick some butt and have fun.

Virtua Fighter on the other hand doesn't have the same level of accessibility of those other 2. There are a couple of characters that are easy to use and be fairly effective with, but it's not until you really sink your teeth into it and get past the button-mashing stage that you really see how deep it is. VF is a game you have to commit to to really learn, and a lot of people just can't handle it. So they write it off.

It's a shame.