i personally believe that meter usage, in 13 or most other games, can't really be argued in any kind of general way. even in a game like ssf4, where meters are very simple, top players have completely different tendencies in terms of how they want to use meter, and this also changes throughout different match ups. for example, Mr. KoF uses meter for his Ken in a completely different way than JoontheBaboon uses meter for his Ken. (They both destroy me at street fighter regardless hahaha)
in a game like KoF13, where you can use meter in so many different offensive and defensive situations, there are way more variables than in a game like ssf4 when it comes to meter usage. more variables means that different players are eventually going to find different uses for meter that make sense in very specific situations. so really, i think to argue either way, to say that HD combos are gdlk or HD combos are stupid, is kinda like arguing which flavor of ice cream is the best. it doesn't really make sense, because its going to be different for different people.
at the end of the day the person who's right is the person who wins. so yeah, i think if you guys seriously want to argue about HD combos, save it for a real life tournament, and then when you beat the other guy you can be like "see, i fucking told you! that argument we had on dreamcancel that one time, i was fucking right!" hahahahah