Although I'm not much of a Johnny Cage fan, as a bass player, I know what you mean.
A good friend of mine is also a bass player.
His band once told him that bass isn't as important.
So, he let them do 1 show without him, to prove how wrong they were.
Needless to say, the show sucked because there was no backbone.
As such, many of the Mortal Kombat 1 thru Ultimate 3 characters (whether you like them or not) are the backbone of MK 9, and the game would feel weird without them.
OT:
Even though I'm not a Johnny Cage fan, I just want to learn his combos and DASH moves.
That way I can apply the DASH combo system to a character that I like better, like say ..... Noob Saibot
JC is just practice for me to get the timing down.