I am not an fc coach although I anecdotically coached for fc so I can't pretend I am "the" specialist but I think I still can make some remarks :

Problem about kicking sloppy and only because of rules comes from guys still intoxicated by the idea that fc is boxing plus karate kicks - which is true only for low-profile amateurs.

If one boxes in fc classic boxing-wise he can be very close to the truth as differences in the technique itself are not very large but he will still have serious problems with good kickers.

Concept of using reach advantage to lead fight is essential as well as to pass well over the reach disadvantage using good kick counters against a boxer and these 2 things make much of the salt and pepper of fc.

In an international bout that I saw highlights from only 2 in 11 final matches were won by competitors with reach disadvantage common rule being that poor kickers were unable to kick because of tactic missunderstanding that you don't open with a mid/highkick against a guy with longer reach and do this systematically. But this is not rocket science to understand.

Fc can exploit many ways of breaking a guys reach, launch punches and finalize with kicks which is sooo scarcely seen because on one hand many guys come from styles where absurd kicking is the rule and on the other many are boxers who don't understand that boxing like in classic boxing on one hand ruins one's balance in respect to ability to throw kicks at the end of a punch serie and on the other moving only your upper body against a kicker to dodge whatever when your strenght is boxing will allow the kicker to teep and chop your midsection with roundkicks. Let alone superior concepts as breaking rhythm not only punch-wise but also kick-wise, adjust distance to kick within a punch serie etc.

So it happens with fc same thing as with all misunderstood ring sports when the innitial enthusiasm was driven away by a more "rough" discipline. Idea of martial profficiency of more permissive ring sports is "the" watering down of all sports. Do you honestly give a serious chance to a 60 kilos MT trainee against a 95 kilos boxer ? Whereas maybe a good grappler would still stand a chance to shoot at him ... Does this make MT a less legitimate sport than say BJJ ? Do you honestly give a chance to a kyokushin karateka to deal with an fc fighter street-wise if the fc guy is 30 kilos heavier and has a reach advantage of 5 inches IF the karateka is rounded only in the knockdown side of kyokushin and not in the self-defense side ? (I am coming from kyokushin and my memories of having my head punched bad before I could use legkicks against an fc fighter with strong boxing are very fresh).

I think that actually fc was buried by its own bad promoters who lacked the experience of older ring sports and looked very much like not knowing anything about good promotion at all, which of course drove people to more exciting stuff. It is also burried as it was said by lack of excellence of fighters who can't find neither good coaches nor good opportunities and this is already a vicious circle. Yet I wouldn't say anything about future. Let's admit that Marquis of Queensbury would have made rules allowing above belt kicks - would you bet that the last match of Lennox couldn't be something like "KO rnd 7 by midkick" and an obscure discipline allowing only punches invented 30 years ago wouldn't have been legitimately looked at as "watered down fc" ? (just half-kidding)