My thoughts are that none of us put in nearly as much time and effort to our respective games as the Koreans or the Japanese or other countries.
Koreans play Starcraft DAILY for at least 10 hours usually averaging 12 or more, and they own that game inside out. They have literally dedicated their lives to the game.
Balance)qudans, among the best Tekken DR players of his time, plays at least 8 hours a day. Among him are people like Knee, NIN, Balance)Jiemoon Ace, etc. Qudans was pulling stuff off at Electric Cancel 6 that none of the US players even thought about trying until they saw it.
Korean players have no qualms about traveling to Japan to play some Tekken DR.
The Japanese and Korean gaming scene in general is just much more dedicated to winning and playing skillfully. (I dare you to find someone button mashing at Joybox, Green Arcade, or some other well known arcade)
Pyrolee (3rd Strike Yun) is easily willing to drive 1 hour and 10 minutes daily for years at a time just to play 3rd Strike. His car caught on fire and his only concern was getting to play 3S. (Yes Arlieth, I listen to Sub-Zero's podcasts, my life is in shambles) He's comparable to the average Japanese player.
I think if more and more people put in as much, if not more, time and effort as Pyro, I believe we'd start seeing noticeable results within a decent amount of time.
There's other issues on our part too, say for example a lot of players hog strats and don't share, big egos, bad sportsmanship and attitudes, etc.
Hold a shitload more gatherings, record casual matches, analyze gameplay til the damn video is dry heaving nothingness, throw out pages upon pages of advice and suggestions to improving gameplay, give up your wife and child for gaming, stay a virgin, etc.
And most definitely none of that "your char is too low tier, pick someone better" BS. Nothing kills morale and discourages quite as effectively as something along the lines of "winning is hopeless for your char no matter how good you are". If advising someone frustrated with their progress is going to take effort and research on your part, then hell, do the research and put in the effort.
Just my 2 cents.