Except, there are plenty of combos where if the 1st hit connects, the result is death. There are plenty of combos where no matter how you di, as long as your opponent has decent reactions or understands your options well enough, you can not get out of it. There are plenty of situations where if you make a mistake, you are dead, regardless of what you do next. So you have the illusion of control, you can pick which way you roll and flail, but you are still dead at the end of the day. But, hey at least it looked cool.
You know everyone is human, and you're putting people to a higher standard than we're capable of. With smart DI, you can and do get out of combos often, even at the highest level. Sure, a grab from marth can lead to zero to death, but it doesn't. SOMETIMES the players make the right predictions, space correctly, and finish combos with death, but its unrealistic to put the game, even at the highest level, to a standard where you claim that because a stomp from falcon can lead to death with the best predictions, it always will. Maybe in certain scenarios, players can cover many or all options, but those are few and far from the number of encounters where a player has influence over the outcome of a conflict. Whereas we can look at ICs. At little to no percent, Ice Climbers with a single grab virtually guarantees, so long as you wobble correctly, that you will achieve a kill, and the other character has zero influence over this.
If we look at every other matchup that isn't sheik vs. non-axe pikachu, you know that at low percents, with smart play, you're promised control to a certain extent over how you're being combo'd, how long you get combo'd, and what moves your opponent has to use in order to continue the combo. Furthermore, you're given many opportunities to reset to the neutral position. We know that competitive play, assuming players are evenly matched, is not a combo contest. It isn't who can get the first hit because it will lead into death. A single hit or grab confirmed even with the best human reflexes doesn't mean that it will lead into death.
To quote wobble's "If you're a falco underneath the stage without your double jump, you're dead, and the only thing that keeps you alive is the other guy being bad at smash".
Yes. Situations where a falco is off the stage without a double jump, usually at high percents or lower percents if a gimp is happening, can be dire. That's true. I don't know what you intended to say, but maybe a better example would be if Marth, with a single grab, could throw any character off the stage from anywhere on the stage and treat them like a falco without a double jump. Its a dire situation, yes. You don't have much control. So why would we let marth have a throw that would guarantee a kill on any character so long as you don't **** up?
Also, you can shake out of it at earlier percents. It is not a true 0 to death. Most people just don't shake out, because most characters don't have that kind of punish for it. It's punishing a foo strategy to the fullest extent. Example: Shroomed sat there at close to 0% and just let wobbles have a 0 to death. That's like a fox putting down his controller and letting a Marth have his chain grab 0 to death on him.
If you're at 5% and you get grabbed by ICs, immediately pummeled after, and then ftilted, you're locked in hitstun. Yes, you can escape after the first pummel because you're at such a low percent, but this isn't candyland where every player instantly spins the sticks (best way to mash) to get out of grabs as soon as they happen. Wobbles gets the grabs at low percents and has thus far demonstrated that getting out of it isn't really an option.
The only difference here? Instead of watching you pay for your mistake over the course of a 4 hit death combo, you get to sit there and drink it in for a good 20 seconds. That is demoralizing, but hey, there are a lot of things in this game that are demoralizing.
