I don't see where there's even a conspiracy theory worth it on Final Fight like that.

Final Fight was released as is because Capcom was being a cheapskate and trying to rush and it's pretty clear at that. They went with a small chip to keep costs down and as a result they had to do cuts. They removed Rolento and his entire stage, they also gutted out Guy which was inexcusable as much as removing 2P mode which the arcade was a key draw around, and then they neutered it putting in stickboy trannies instead of the girls. While it ticked people off who were old enough to care we have to keep it in perspective of 1991 when most here probably with SNES were teens or kids in the pre-internet era so they'd have no clue of being shafted so I don't see how FF1 hurt FF2's sales. FF Guy was retail in Japan and was basically just a re-skin of their cheapskate port of the original, Blockbuster saw a rental opportunity and was able to work with Capcom to exclusively rent those things out in the states as it wasn't a retail purchase. Final FIght 2 popped up after that rental in this country, but it was made before FF1 got reskinned as FF Guy. Final FIght 2 was on par or even in some ways depending on tastes superior to other brawlers and it has the lack of multiplayer corrected. Capcom wasn't hurting for rep as they had other potent titles at the time too like Captain Commando. I don't even see how arguing about the Genesis is relevant as most people were single system owners in that era, it isn't the period of now where game junkies have at least 2 if not all 3 of the big fish so if you had a Genesis you got Streets of Rage 1-3, and if you had SNES only you were a Final Fight 1-3 type guy or played others from Capcom or other developers on each.