Before I start, those were just some examples; I just listed the more prominent examples.
(Ganondorf's lower middle, in my opinion, but that's beside the point.)
Ryu has some pretty good MUs against high tiers and top tiers pretty often. There might be some ways to work around him, like using a projectile character to make him rush in, but if he gets in and gets that U-Tilt, not a single bit of DI will save you unless you manage to get to the ground, which is harder than it seems.
From personal experience, Ryu is the kind of character who benefits from making you very angry or frustrated (Meta Knight, Diddy Kong and ROB do this to larger extents). But the one character I can actually get around Ryu with is surprisingly Link. Call me a schmuck for saying it, but I haven't found a single Ryu that I haven't won a single match against with Link; every Ryu I meet, at least one match with my Link will result in a win (either when I just pull him out or figure out the opponent's style).
If Ryu had a nerf on True Shoryuken only, with damage or knockback nerfed, he would still be a pretty powerful foe. If he had more KB scaling on Up Tilt, he'd still be a strong character, but at least he'd be a character that would have more balances MUs.
Ryu's often called a very high tier or a top tier character all because of what he can perform. Just some nerfs on him would do wonders for actual balance.