Thanks folks for the responses, some good perspectives.
I’m going to make a case here: if an ice can turn a game on its own, it deserves a second look. In the “new” MWL format we’ve had at least Fairchild 3.0, Surveyor, and Mother Goddess get restricted, while other ice like Architect come off (since the function of the MWL is no longer to try to simultaneously handle ubiquity AND power). Fairchild 3.0 came off, OK that’s fine I guess. (Although Surveyor and Fairchild 3.0 together is a bit of a nightmare.)
When you look at Surveyor and Mother Goddess, they turn a game immediately. The runner can’t steal, the corp windmills agendas, gg. Kakugo doesn’t do this, it allows the runner to get to 3 or 5 or 6 points but nevertheless unable to complete the game. Slower, more attritional, subtler effects seem to naturally fly under the radar when it comes to restriction. In short, Kakugo results in an impossible gamestate as much as Surveyor or Mother Goddess, it just does it a lot later.
Is the problem Obokata Protocol? I’m not sure, I think in a vacuum it’s one of the most appropriate costs in the game: you get almost halfway to the win, at the expense of whatever you’re holding. I love gleefully dumping my grip and then ruefully wishing I hadn’t later. You can always leave it and try to steal it later too. Great card. But when two effects together create an untenable situation, they shouldn’t be in the same deck, end of story.
All of this emerged from playing Smoke again for the first time in over a year and getting a bit bummed out. Yesterday morning I tinkered with the standard Paragon Smoke and put in a DJ Fenris among other changes. DJ Steve gives Smoke that little extra staying power, so I consider this solved… for the moment. 