How do you do so well with so many characters

I play a lot of characters (a LOT) and I can tell you, I don't have enough room in my brain for all the knowledge for all the characters, so I've been selective about what I try to retain. You'll notice that I don't do max damage combos when they're character specific. I just find a good combo for lights, and one for heavies. I don't do a lot of stance specific stuff either.

Mostly I took on the task of learning different characters so I could increase my defense against those characters. I don't memorize frame data, but I can "feel" disadvantage situations if I've played as that character. Know what I mean?

But I have to agree with everyone that the basics are more important. Things like P,G 6P are fairly universal. Good movement is something everyone can do too.