lol
SF3's style didn't capture the spirit of what "SF used to be" before that. And the Alpha/Zero series' style didn't capture the spirit of what "SF used to be" before that. You've drawn an arbitrary, meaningless line. If you just don't like 3D that's fine, but don't make up an imaginary unsupportable argument to back up your personal taste. In any case, 3D is not going away. Capcom is never going to go back to 2D for Street Fighter. Get used to the idea.
Dude, personal tastes has absolutely nothing to do with that, quite the opposite actually.
Go on Google Images and look for screenshots of Tekken 1 through 7 and you'll see that the art direction of the game has remained coherent throughout the series.
Look for Guilty Gear, again, from Guilty Gear X through -SIGN-, and you'll still see they've remained coherent with their designs.
Same applies to KoF from 94 through XIII (Maximum Impact is another story).
Now get Street Fighter, from SFII through third strike, even through all the Alphas: you'll see that characters were drawn in a certain way because that was the original concept. And then there's SFIV. Now, what the fuck happened. Why did they have to make a change so drastic. Why didn't they choose the KOFXIII path.
This is something that still today I can't cope with, and has nothing to do with personal tastes, it's just in front of everyone's eyes.
http://www.dinofarmgames.com/a-pixel-artist-renounces-pixel-art/
Take a moment to read this article and, if you don't care enough, then just skip to the part where he compares 3rd strike Chun-li with its SFIV counterpart.
Capcom just fucked it up, even though SFIV is still a great game, but its art is completely off.