Pressing buttons to master the game

Years ago, as I was learning to play Street Fighter 5, I heard somewhere that :

- as a beginner, you just mash on your controller ;

- when you become an intermediate player, you learn to stop pressing buttons (aka you learn to defend) ;

- but if you want to progress further and become a master, you need to learn to press buttons again.

I feel that this cycle is the same for every fighting game - but is that really the case ? Are there fighting games where you need to proceed differently to reach the higher ranks ?