Sonya is a beast on the ground but in the air, not so much. One of the biggest holes in Sonya's ground game is the fact that all but one of her strings start high and if she starts the 312 string to a ducking opponent, the 1 will whiff high. This makes Sonya want to jump in to force her opponent to stand even with blocking since it will still give her a block string, meter gain and position for cancel shenanigans.
Basically, letting Sonya get within sweep range period is a bad idea. I wouldn't say that players are forced to respect her jump ins since Sonya is pretty vulnerable in the air, it's more the results of a successful jump in that should worry you.