There's a shit ton of High level footage on Youtube, just search for it if you want to see it for yourself.
Now to answer your question..
Character aren't made the same, Yea, the fundamentals of MK apply to every character (Footsies, Zoning, Space control etc..) however, some character have certain attributes that are Character specific that put them at a advantage or disadvantage over another character in Match ups.
Example:
Kabal vs Cage and Mileena vs Cage.
Since Kabal has his Nomad dash cancel, and if he options to spend a bar to EX it he has the ability to Nullify any hit from ANY character and can combo of it to lock you down in his Nomad Dash Mix up. So the Cage player has to be careful when throwing out strings while in Kabal's face or if the Kabal player predicts Cage to use an Advancing normal to (F+3) get in and start pressure, he can break his offense and start his own.
Now, Lets look at the Mileena v Kabal Match up. Mileena has NO armor on NONE of her EX moves, so she doesn't have that "Get out of Pressure" free card like Kabal does against Cage and she's forced to guess for a chance to poke out of Cage's pressure. So she has to either take the chip and die or risk around 11% damage by guessing to poke out of Cage's Godlike pressure.
So to sum this up..
Kabal has the ability to get out of Cage's pressure at cost of Meter and he gets a full combo to start his Mix-up game that can lead into MORE damage and back into the same Mix-up situation.
While Mileena is forced to guess free of meter, but she's risking her health bar for ONLY the option to get out of Cage's pressure.
Kabal's EX Nomad Dash makes it easier for him to deal with Cage, While Mileena has to... Guess.. It's beyond gay, Armor on her EX roll in MK10
ANYWAYS..
But that slight Advantage can turn a 5-5 Match up to 6-4 or even 8-2...
Edit: Forgot to mention that Kabal can Whiff punish negros from Mid screen with that dash too, and his iAGB is ridiculous, best zoner in the game.