<Snipped quote by The Mad Hatter>
Well, the thing with substitution is that's it's an E-ranked technique... During the chuunin exam Sakura tries to fight one of the sand-ninjas (while Naruto and Sasuke are out cold and right before Lee proves that chivalry is not dead by kicking a lady in the face) using a series of kawarimi, every time the suna-nin is anticipating the counter... So it seems like the technique is just too obvious to use once you reach a certain level and more suited for keeping low-leveled ninjas alive.
Yea I agree is just like that in the game also Naruto or DBZ. When you vanish and appear behind your opponent. You can always count on that they will do a kawarimi as soon as you connect them with you combo. So imagine like Halvtand said, it is to obvious technique to use and will only waste chakra.