i'm not really sure what you mean when you say she's "cheap", i think she has solid tools. it's easy to confirm into her DP for easy damage without needing HD mode. plus, her anti-air super is pretty versatile in or out of combos. as far as i know, she doesn't have any extremely good normals or gimmicks. she's just an easy character to play offensively. of course, i'm not any good with her, but that's just my impression. i don't even see people really play her at AI. kinda curious to why that is. it's not like i don't see a bunch of k's every now and then, and i don't think she's nearly that good.
Here goes...
You kinda answered his question to why people thing she's "cheap", I wouldn't call her that per se, just top tier. There were two to three more players that used her, two dropped playing XIII for whatever reason (or comes real infrequent--Martin and Pepe/Guerro), the other was RJ (used to mained her in XII) who muttered something like "it's easy mode when you play with her" and stop using her as well. Some ppl feel that she's WAY too easy to use and her dial-a-combo dp makes her boring. The only person who even attempts the harder combos with her ("harder" is really relative to her easy combos, maybe "normal" is the right word) is
The Answer, who at least goes for the triple dp combos+drive cancel combos that is at least easy to mess up;
I respect that.
All in all, I wouldn't consider her OP but just kinda mind numbing easy, definitely top tier (A+). Personally, if they removed
either her command throw
OR her Counter, she'd be fine. Having both a super good counter, Command Throw
that both lead into her dial-a-combos, good jump attacks (B and D) with B being a particularly good crossup, d.B combos, juggle anywhere into DM, safe specials, builds meter quick, easy to use, overall high damage, and a counter NM. IMHO, any one of those properties individually are not OP, but
combined it makes her top tier.
I do agree however, she's not K'. =)