The way characters have been added (or not been added) speaks to me in a very simple way.
Namco wants this game to sell. In Japan.
Consider who is already in T7. The core cast, minus a couple (Nina/Anna for example). The fan favorites, Lars, Alisa, Lili, Asuka. The new characters, Chloe, Claudio? Very Japanese styled designs. Gigas and Josie? Surely easier to sell a monster and woman than the two black men they most resemble style wise, Marduk and Bruce. Shaheen and Katarina are solid outliers, but they are also sexy and that can be sold.
There was that quote going around about
Tekken's sales being 90% international? Maybe not everyone sees that as a positive thing. Besides, the world already loved Tekken right? They'll just buy this one again too.
And boy does it still bother me that the company went to great lengths learn and design an Arab character so to not offend their people, but wouldn't give the same level of care to a Western/American character, and have instead decided to remove characters who, while stereotypical, weren't offensive. I wish I had a text transcript of what Murray said when asked about black characters so I could remember exactly why I'm mad.
But hey, new news coming, still more characters to come, still plenty of time, yadda yadda. I'm chillin.