That to me sounds like you are theorizing about it, and havent played it, Mortal Kombat is not a contest of chip damage I can assure of that.
Anyway Machinima is going to do live gameplay (Full Game not Demo) feed in about 2 and half hours:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8oVya9_DXA&hd=1
I have played quite a lot of the demo, and I'm very familiar with UMK3 as well (which pretty much is a series defining game). You also didn't read my post.
Since there's no crossup, the only way to deal damage is either catching someone off guard, or using your frame advantages to hit them with a higher priority move. And since special moves come out a lot faster, especially the overhead ones, there's no reason why you don't want to build meter. That's exactly why I've never liked the block button in 2D fighters, because it lowers the skill ceiling.
Unless you can suggest a better strategy? I'm always looking to improve my fighting game skills.
As I said, it'll be pretty fun for a while but I doubt we'll see much of it at evo (it's only going to be there because of the revenue that comes along with it) or very much high level play.