Yeah yeah, keep playing on pad, but when we inevitably get an SBO qual for this game and your ass is sitting infront of the cabinet going 'a-derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr' then you'll be thinking otherwise. What about Texas Showdown? That's all arcade cabinets. I mean in reality there are more MB cabinets in the US then both GG and AH combined, and that's saying alot, and there's more coming still.
Practicing stick with MB in this game means that SHOULD you be given the opportunity to play the game at an arcade cabinet, you will not be assed out, and sooner or later, everyone does. I was playing MB on pad since I started back with the ORIGINAL MB, but then I found out an arcade FOUR STATES AWAY had the damn game (this was well over a year ago) so I made the 14 hour trek up there countless times. Shit was sadness, but the opportunity will be there, and there's no real con in learning stick (in reality I just get alot more hype and energetic when using stick, more so then I ever did with pad).
So I guess learning stick in MB really is a sign that you're getting serious, because even if the chance for a qual or on on actual cab is 0.01%, it's still there, and you'll be ready for it.