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As you've probably figured out by now, Power has been the deciding factor for at least 90% of the fights in Dragon Ball Z. The fights that are actually won by the weaker fighter can only be counted on one hand.
In Super, we can notice that they've tried to fix it, more often than not by exploiting a particular gimmick that makes it difficult to win by sheer power alone. Botamo can tank damage far higher than his real power would suggest, Hit can skip ahead of time, Zamasu (manga) can paralyze people stronger than him AND is immortal etc. On the protagonists' side, more often than not, they'll outperform stronger characters just by displaying their skills. For example, Base Goku outperformed Vegeta Blue by analyzing how Hit's technique works. In fact, this was the reason why the kids were left behind in Anime.
The problem is basically everything that represents Power in DB. With very few exceptions, being more powerful means stronger, faster, tougher...basically a much better physical condition all around. Not a single physical aspect is ignored. That means if you have a more powerful ki than your opponent...you've pretty much outclassed him in every single one physical aspect possible. That's why skill rarely mattered in DBZ: it doesn't matter how skilled you are. It will only get you so far against someone who is hundreds of times better than you (physically speaking) in everything. While DBS tried to fix it, the way Power works hasn't changed, so it only looks like they had to make the stronger fighter randomly slow or weak enough, temporarily or not, for the skilled one to actually manage something.
One cannot simply establish Power as being the one thing above all else, pretend that Skill alone can make a difference (especially if the gap was ridiculous), then just expect everyone to accept it. The writers basically wrote themselves into a corner by establishing Power in that way in Z. So in Super, they were simply forced to create inconsistencies, because Power simply gave too many advantages. If Power simply raised Strength, and you had to do different kinds of training to raise the other specific aspects, I think it would have been easier to handle, with all fighters having a specific advantage, thus the winner isn't predictable simply thanks to a A > B > C logic. Some would be strong at the cost of speed, others would be fast at the cost of strength, others would be able to dish out without being able to take it and vice versa, some would be better at close range than long range and vice versa, the rest would be more or less balanced (no particular advantage, no particular weakness).
This is, for example, why I think Hit VS Dyspo was kind of interesting. Hit was stronger and more skilled...but he still had trouble because Dyspo was faster and could predict Hit's Time-Skip, thus stop it before he could even use it (makes more sense than Base Goku vs Hit, btw). But since his strength doesn't match his speed, Hit can take the hits long enough to adapt to his speed like he did with Goku in U6 arc, though he still couldn't take the edge. Then he bluffed Dyspo to negate his speed advantage.
Nothing amazing, but if the fights were more like this instead of Power > All, I think the relevance of skill would have been more believable...and far more consistent.
In Super, we can notice that they've tried to fix it, more often than not by exploiting a particular gimmick that makes it difficult to win by sheer power alone. Botamo can tank damage far higher than his real power would suggest, Hit can skip ahead of time, Zamasu (manga) can paralyze people stronger than him AND is immortal etc. On the protagonists' side, more often than not, they'll outperform stronger characters just by displaying their skills. For example, Base Goku outperformed Vegeta Blue by analyzing how Hit's technique works. In fact, this was the reason why the kids were left behind in Anime.
The problem is basically everything that represents Power in DB. With very few exceptions, being more powerful means stronger, faster, tougher...basically a much better physical condition all around. Not a single physical aspect is ignored. That means if you have a more powerful ki than your opponent...you've pretty much outclassed him in every single one physical aspect possible. That's why skill rarely mattered in DBZ: it doesn't matter how skilled you are. It will only get you so far against someone who is hundreds of times better than you (physically speaking) in everything. While DBS tried to fix it, the way Power works hasn't changed, so it only looks like they had to make the stronger fighter randomly slow or weak enough, temporarily or not, for the skilled one to actually manage something.
One cannot simply establish Power as being the one thing above all else, pretend that Skill alone can make a difference (especially if the gap was ridiculous), then just expect everyone to accept it. The writers basically wrote themselves into a corner by establishing Power in that way in Z. So in Super, they were simply forced to create inconsistencies, because Power simply gave too many advantages. If Power simply raised Strength, and you had to do different kinds of training to raise the other specific aspects, I think it would have been easier to handle, with all fighters having a specific advantage, thus the winner isn't predictable simply thanks to a A > B > C logic. Some would be strong at the cost of speed, others would be fast at the cost of strength, others would be able to dish out without being able to take it and vice versa, some would be better at close range than long range and vice versa, the rest would be more or less balanced (no particular advantage, no particular weakness).
This is, for example, why I think Hit VS Dyspo was kind of interesting. Hit was stronger and more skilled...but he still had trouble because Dyspo was faster and could predict Hit's Time-Skip, thus stop it before he could even use it (makes more sense than Base Goku vs Hit, btw). But since his strength doesn't match his speed, Hit can take the hits long enough to adapt to his speed like he did with Goku in U6 arc, though he still couldn't take the edge. Then he bluffed Dyspo to negate his speed advantage.
Nothing amazing, but if the fights were more like this instead of Power > All, I think the relevance of skill would have been more believable...and far more consistent.
