I've not picked up the full game yet, so I can only base my opinion off of the beta's and the demo, but I don't think it sucks.
It's launched in a far better, more complete state, than SFV launched in, so that's an improvement.
Auto combos/specials may as well not exist if you play it properly, but the fact that they're their so that novices aren't scared off is also a plus.
The tempo of the game is about the same as a lot of other recent vsfighters (Tekken 7, Soul Calibur 6, MVCI, KoFXIV & XV, Samurai Shodown, etc), and only seems slow next to some of the more frenetic animé fighters. The people most often complaining about the gameplay being slow are usually unskilled button mashers.