RiBu
Mitsu-Fucking-Rugi
As far as Yoda balance, customizing his soul gauge as a rule in a tourney would make as much sense as allowing Algol in play except restricting the use of his bubbles. His weak soul gauge was most likely Namco's way of offsetting his height. In addition, it almost makes sense (almost), like you wouldn't expect Yoda to be able to block Astaroth's as well as the rest of the cast (not the best point considering all of the other physical discrepancies in SC but w/e, I thought I'd point that out). I still think Yoda hasn't developed as a character yet. There still might be potential in him, it's just that no one (except maybe two other people) take him seriously.
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Yoda's 'secret stage' is the elevator thing too
The problem with going that route again is characters that are even half decent at SG damage can have him flashing or broken in a round easily.
As far as t offset his height he already has the worst step in the game aka no step.