yes, very true. The mixups in vampire savior are border line impossible to block, some are very impossible and what that creates is dedication on defense. Its the main reason why the top tier has 3 characters in it with hi\low pressure games, sas\bee\raptor
its either an allure or a turn off for players. I personally welcome the speed in a world full of slow modern fighting games.
and even though hi\low is broken, several low tier players have routinely got top 3 in big tournaments. like lilth being on the winning team this year as I'm sure you know
well, that only depends on your push block method. I routinely open up with lk, mk as my push attempt to solely dodge the accidental DF. To get a DF, the input has to be rather fast, like 1-2 frames or some shit within each other. The push I go for is lk, mk, lp, mp,fp, I've been pushing like this for about a year now and I'd say less than 1% of the time do I actually input an accidental DF.
I play on a pad and the first 4 buttons are the face buttons. On a stick you can use your thumb to tap lk, then drag it to the right to hit mk, then piano, fp>mp>lp. 5 hit tech, opens up with lk first for fastest wiff possible, will tech a throw and it prevents accidental DF's from happening.
and just for shits and giggles, some characters can exploit a df input+push attempt. sas can DF for gold armor but it counts as 1 button input towards a push, any simultaneous input will register as 1 button for a push iirc. so shit like, DF, piano, will equal a 4 button push but also give you the opportunity for a DF as your first input. Like say someone was trying to do a throw setup on you and went for a df os push, you wouldn't get a push anymore it would go into your DF and in some cases, allow you to get away too clean.
I will say for my first 2 years of the game, trying to push block always lead to that shitty DF here and there and it would make me pretty mad but actually working around the game, I've actually learned to love the push block. You just have to be smarter than the input windows =p