Not entirely true.
Kenshi, Tanya, Frost, Noob-Smoke, Reiko, Fujin etc. There were tons of new characters that were extremely cool that didn't get their fare share of game time in some of the future titles. But I agree that it did get overinflated at one point.
Comparing SoulCalibur V..that's a whole nother train wreak.
Yeah, like piscesdreams said, most of the characters you mentioned were pre-PS2 era. Kenshi and Frost were the only PS2-era characters, and I've never even seen anyone talk about Frost. Nothing good and nothing bad about her. Kenshi gets a lot of love, to the point where they've kept him as a character this long.
And like said earlier, I would definitely love for Havik to come back as a character. In his alternate Deception costume, of course. That one looked badass. Another PS2-era character I really enjoyed was Taven. Despite his somewhat generic look, I loved the fact that he talked shit and could back it up without any problems. The only problem with introducing Taven is that Daegon would have to be included and I don't like Daegon. At all.