i don't have a super high opinion of ness (i think he's around mid tier or so), but i think ness's qualities are being underrated here. the main cons of ness are struggles with range (mostly swords) meaning it can sometimes be hard to get in depending on the matchup, gimpable recovery, and flawed (though underrated) landing options. these are issues that make certain matchups pretty bad, but i think people tend to ignore the many good qualities that ness possesses.
one of the main things is that, although he can struggle with swords, once he's in range with his moves they almost always win trades. those same individual aerials do a ton of damage, over 10 each in addition to great shield safety on his aerials and good shield damage. furthermore, the threat of ness' aerials makes it easier for him to get grabs, for which he can get a good amount of percent at low percents with throw combos and reliable positional advantage/damage at mid to high percents (especially with his pummel. it's also not like his aerials have bad hitboxes or range, boasting disjoints to boot- it's just not great range compared to some of the crazier spacing aerials that certain top characters possess. from the ground, you can also do dash attack, which is unsafe but has a ton of disjoint that allows it to beat out many actions. though ness's ground moves might not have great range, they are still fast - frame 3 jab and down tilt - which makes them effective enough for the close-range scenarios where you need them.
there's other factors in ness neutral game that are worth noting. one is that his foxtrot is really fantastic, and in general that's there's a lot of little tricks you can do to mix up and enhance your pressure. for example, you can foxtrot around and then come in with an aerial or a dash attack, or you can grab. you can short hop and then do the faster landing with down air to enhance your aerial movement and trick opponents. furthermore, you can mix up the timing of your approach with psi magnet (this is something i saw tsujikou, an online japanese ness player, use effectively in a set against earth). you can also foxtrot and, instead of dashing back in, use pk fire, or take your short hop and turn into an autocanceled double jump pk fire. the primary struggle with ness is actually getting in, but once you're in range there's so much you can do to apply pressure and it's not nearly as linear as people say. ness has multiple effective options to pressure and ways to mix up his attack timing, and typically wins trades with his aerials with solid reward for connecting them. meanwhile, if you approach ness, he's one of the better characters at relieving pressure and even turning it around. a frame 5 nair to respond out of shield with, scary pivot grab/pk fire, and really good aerials at winning trades against moves people will typically want to approach you with make ness a legitimately scary character to approach and someone you must tread carefully against.
once ness gets positional advantage, there's also a lot he can do. he can juggle you with up air and pk thunder, which can even be difficult to deal with for characters with typically free disadvantage states. when ness gets you offstage, he can 2 frame many recoveries with down smash (one of the best characters at that) and get gimps or outright kill that way, as well as bombard recovery attempts with pk thunder which at least tends to set up a ledge position. ness can kill you for reading the right ledge options at high percents and has decent options to cover the ledge in any case, making him a scary character to fight against in that position.
in terms of kill options, ness has some of the most reliable ones in the cast. there's of course the back throw, which is easily the best kill throw in the game. up air is a strong kill option that is safe on shield if used properly and beats out pretty much any opposing aerial. back air is also a strong kill option that is safe on shield. there's also down smash at the ledge and some of the more gimmicky options that you can hit from time to time like pkt2 (sometimes you can get it to frame trap into the hit) and dtilt trip fsmash which kill at ridiculous percents. neutral air can also kill by the ledge. ness is a character that can reliably secure stocks at fairly early percents compared to some of the top tiers and has his own share of 'janky' kill options.
as for matchups, ness heavily struggles with cloud, sheik, and rosa. none of these matchups are unwinnable, but they are quite difficult to deal with consistently because of the options these characters possess, including the ability to gimp ness and juggle ness (less applicable for sheik), as well as strong defensive play. ness can also struggle with corrin and marth due to range and edgeguarding issues, villager due to some mildly oppressive edgeguarding (though neutral is actually quite decent in this matchup), and sonic because he has such strong defensive play and can also edgeguard ness really well with the spring and devastating fsmash punish for the common double jump on stage shenanigans that ness pulls. other matchups that are mildly bad are primarily pit (up smash bodies landings and arrows for ness's recovery are brutal), and perhaps mewtwo as well because of his solid defensive neutral. ness also has some good (well, even or maybe a couple very small disadvantage) matchups with top tiers that he can do serious work in, though. matchups that immediately come to mind are fox, zero suit, mario, and diddy kong. ness also has even or winning matchups against many high and mid tier characters.
in conclusion: ness, although he has notable flaws, still has fantastic reward, consistent kill options, and underrated options in neutral overall. i think the character is a mid tier because of his bad matchups, but he can certainly put in work in many other matchups aside from those, including against some top tiers.
is a bigger bleach drink than 
