OE isn't completely terrible. It has really bad online play and the timing feels off to some people even offline, but it isn't a horrible port.
But yeah. Chun is the only braindead easy character in 3S. I think if you ignore her, the game is very much a skill thing and is less about tiers. If someone is better than you, it's easy for them to show it regardless of what characters you choose.
That's probably less apparent online though, especially with the bad OE netcode. If you can't consistently parry and your inputs are being ignored because of frame drops and your hit confirms turn out to be fake because you saw it hit and then it rolls back, well you're not really playing 3S anymore and it won't be much fun.
One other thing I noticed - a lot of people who started 3S with OE on B8 chose hard characters. It's really not easy to be good with Alex or Hugo or Q. They can be good once you figure out the game, I just wouldn't start with them. The game has some balance problems for sure, but they're only exacerbated when you start with people like that.
Also Shoe didn't mention him, but I think Dudley is pretty easy to get into. FWIW I've had the hardest time learning Yun and then Makoto of all the good people. Urien can be tough too, but he's pretty technical and I've at least made some headway on him. I agree that Ken is relatively easy and good and he's pretty fun to be.