"High damage isn't everything" - perhaps not, but in a game like SCV, characters with low damage output need to have other areas where they particularly excel in order to do well. For example, Pyrrha's general damage is pretty low (not as low as Leixia's, mind), but she makes up for that with excellent block punishment, plus excellent moves like 66A (fast, kills step, decent damage, safe and even tech crouches!) and 22K (tech steps by default, of course, but also tech crouches, safe and leads to a combo on hit), and thus ends up being a decent upper-mid.
Leixia, however, doesn't really have any areas that she particularly shines.
Guard pressure? Yeah, it's pretty good, but that generally works best when the character in question also has a high damage output (like Omega). Realistically you can't expect to guard crush more than once in a match, and when that happens Leixia's damage output afterwards is lacking. She gets about 67 damage without meter, and maybe 90 or so if she uses one BE. Other characters, meanwhile, can potentially get 80+ damage meterless and/or >100 with one BE.
Throws? Leixia's throws are decent, but they aren't really drastically better than anyone else's.
Pokes? Yeah, they're great frame-wise, but when other characters have good frames on their pokes AND better damage on them, Leixia just can't measure up.
And really, how many characters are there that are worse than Leixia? The only characters that are unanimously agreed to be worse than Leixia so far are Dampierre and Raphael.
