I can answer that, sorry if I missed you before.
Chip damage has been normalized, but it isn't injustice levels of bad. A full string will still do about 5-8% on chip, not counting connectors and certain character differences (pewpew raiden's Thunder infused strings do quite a fair bit, and of course cut bonuses). That was the build like a bit before this one, but I can't imagine it being too different. So instead of Johnny cage's f.H doing 5% on its own, imagine like reptiles 1122 string doing a bit more than that. So. Strings on block? Still a good idea if you can make them safe. Won't win you the game outright, but it's still worth smashing their guard.
To the guy asking 50/50, most characters don't actually have good overhead options, let alone strong 50/50s. That's a very niche thing, and will probably be a selling point on some characters. Fastest I saw was scorp 's classic sitting at I think 24 frames.