That is one read. Well understanding were you come from, I will say that you have to take the different anime fighters (gonna talk only arcsys for this one, p4a, bbcp and Ggxx) you have to treat their combo systems differently, since they have their different wierd things to have to deal with, from cp and its smp and hitstun timer, to personas more free form system, to guilty gears convoluted bullshit:p.
Bottom line however, is that you generally should be looking for combos that come of good moves (fast pokes, high damage starters) and squeeze the most out of the damage possibly there while still achieving knockdown.
Sure there are style combos and max damage combos, but perfecting your play and using reliable bnbs are usually more important and useful in the long run. And if you got hit by random super its cuz you let it happen. And it sucks aha