Releasing SF6 in arcades first would have been so incredibly wack.
Sorry, I know we're enthusiasts and want to believe in arcades still, but giving Japanese players 6 months to play and practice while everyone else has to wait would just be trash. Capcom would have been savaged for that call. And with a million dollars on the line for Capcom Cup? Oof.
The arcade era is dead, we just need to move on at this point. TTX4s are shitty PCs, the arcade versions are gimped compared to all the upsides of playing at home on PCs, and there's no reason to try and prop it up when nobody really cares. Like if Round1 got it would you really be hyped up to go and play? Maybe for the novelty, but that's probably it.
Half my players for 6 on my Vewlixes plug in their own controllers now. Even the idea of playing on cabs is starting to not matter at all to people. I made little Type Arcade marquees for fun, but I'm running the game on a modern PC with upgraded high refresh 1440p monitors in the Vewlixes and it's just straight up better. Better graphics, better lag, better options.
tbh I've kinda run out of juice for it at the moment. Every week when I host I'm just playing Third Strike on the Astros and chilling. But I'm happy to keep running 6 for folks, and maybe I'll find more enthusiasm for it later.