Once SNK got going, Capcom was what others settled for.
That's good recap of what happened.
SNK. is no B team at all. There is no comparison between many SNK charming games and many Capcom uninspired titles. SNK had spirit, anima and charisma capcom never had. Some titles are simply brilliant and evocative, like Kizuna, Big Tournament golf, ninja master, slugs and so on.
SNK is like modern art, you have to a be a connoisseur to understand its message ... and still you just have to be a simple player to appreciate and enjoy neo geo games.
Like I always said, the real power of neo geo games is that they are worldwide known and immediately available and playable.
As a side note, if you compare the story of Kawasaki with the one of Tsujimoto, Kawasaki 's life seems to be taken from a cool movie.