I hope you destroyed them soundly with her at the end of your discussion. Pai rep. xD
Here I was fighting ThatOneAznJosh. He's a tournament player here in SoCal, and I quite enjoy playing him because due to his location our connection is typically smooth. I think he technically mains Sarah, but he uses a wide variety of characters competently.
I don't normally name my opponents just because sometimes people get sensitive about uploading matches when it may not be their best fight or w/e, but I think he performed well here and wouldn't mind.
I had that same discussion with someone on PSN a few nights ago. They were telling me that as a Pai player, I need to accept that she's low tier trash...
But yeah, and even when she's IN stun, she can still get some crazy damage from her counters if she guesses right.
She's always got the advantage with her speed, safety, crushes and mix-ups. Thus, you can't make ANY "good decisions" against her until she's in stun, which is hard to reach because of the reasons described previously. Thus, you just have to play stupid/risky.
I'm amazed some people still aren't convinced how brutal this character truly is. Someone on FB was trying to convince me she's low-tier and not tournament-viable. I'm like: "Bitch, no."