Buffed or nerfed, compared to anoth returning Legend of Zelda character who's received an almost tragically humorous nerf'ing (light enough to the point that she can be Star K.O'd at laughably low percentages), Link plays at a decent-enough pace for me. This may be because the game's physics, coupled with Link's overall speed boost, helps to better fit my personal ideal playstyle for Link thus even if he's not better, I feel better using him than in Melee. I only wish I could say the same for Captain Falcon (but I still manage). I also find the wavebounce/b-sticking/whatever for Link's Gale Boomerang useful against the speedier blade users. I put his grab to little use, mostly because I haven't felt the need for it as much I used to (though I don't reccomend doing the dash-grab unless you're maybe trying to close in on an enemy that's coming in for a landing).
As for his recovery, it's sadly far from good, I can understand weakening the ground spin attack (uncharged at least), but I honestly don't know where they were coming from nerfing its recovery capabilities as well, it just feels less reliable now. But I was surprised mostly by how far he still was from the ledge after the move, yet still grabbed the ledge. Anyway, it's really mostly the low-trajectory launchers that are almost guaranteed to do Link in. Thankfully, it's still not QUITE as bad as SSB64 Link's recovery. And while I think the Tether Recovery is a little underrated (I mean at least it comes out fast, you gotta respect that, even if it is the only thing), it's NOT to be taken into any priority.
Bottom line, Link's far from what can be called great, but he's just as far from what can be called crap. If it weren't for the recovery, and the still hard-to-tolerate-slow F-tilt (though to its credit, it's still undeniably faster than in Melee, if only by a margin), he'd be at a high level of good, but in my experience(s), he's like a mediocre level of...well, mediocre. Kinda wha I expected, so I guess that's also why I just jumped into him. Even if he sucks by metagame standards, it doesn't necessarily mean one would suck AS him, and that's usually what matters when it comes to maining a character.