Pikachu's quick attack hitting you helps him get gimps in almost every MU.
If you hit them once you've already gimped them, that is on you. Between quick attack alone, and then skull bash, thunder stalling, wall jumps... etc, it shouldn't really happen.
But take fox, say you take a swing at him with dair and miss... he starts firefox, you can quick attack through him, stop the startup, catch the ledge, and drop another dair on the next startup. Fox is one of the most guaranteed ones but rarely is getting stunned by a move a good thing when that character grabs the ledge and can drop down as far as he needs for a second attempt.
I believe it was ESAM vs light where this was showcased, its in ESAM's highlight video for sure... but really, if you play pika try it out. The risk reward is great unless they land a spike... but the timing is all on their guess, if they miss an aerial and you simply zip to the ledge they're in lag below pika on the ledge, also not a great spot to be in.
Pika's tjolt is superior for camping, camping isn't nearly as effective when you are hurting yourself to do it. Pichu covers approaches and gets chip damage, pika can actually make you approach. Both are top level projectiles, with a buffered full hop into either a dash or a jump you're in an amazing spot with a projectile covering you like classic 2D fighter style. Even parries aren't safe in this situation. And pika can fire off a lot, you'll probably have to approach... which is why GaW and Ness are hard MUs', they have unique tools which effectively shut this down.
Damn, in 4 it was nice to get 2 guarantee'd hits on GaW when he surely went for the bucket, now his frame data is so good on it that you aren't guaranteed it. Or my timing is bad, but it is certainly harder in this game.
Outside of gimping, quick attack is strictly better.
ESAM has said that if you don't get the DI on the dtilt, which is unreactable, you are going to get hit. It isn't a read, he can chase you, try the jab lock, and then react to your tech. Dtilt isn't pichu level but its still damn good and much much more ranged.
Down angled f-tilt is pretty awesome at the ledge.
Also F-smash may get you some early kills, but I'd much prefer a ranged kill attempt with a dash attack punish at worst than Pichu's version, where you whiff and most characters can f'smash you.
Having real kill confirms all over the place is also nice, to be specific nair should kill you at dragdown range and u-smash percentage.
Fair combos are getting better, if you don't DI it right you can get fair- > thunder spiked, nair -> dair'd (happened to Nairo from a 2frame teleport punish!) and even if he doesn't combo getting dragged down is again, a pretty terrible spot. I think his weakness is really when you don't make anything of all these terrible spots you put the opponent in, because while they're in a bad spot frequently its not as guaranteed as joker uair dragdown just killing you. And once you are out of combo range, he mostly is able to just poke you in neutral. I mean nair will always combo, but stop jumping out of shield when he FH fairs =]
Something I love about pika is that you can get your timing down with fastfalling fairs and that autocancel window is great. It can be considerably faster than just SH fair, which means you can alternate the timing between when you fair, fastfall, etc... and dragdowns actually being good in this game means a lot more, because you get jabbed in the face for landing a fair less in this game and landing a nair is either damage or a kill unless you use it directly OOS.
Pika's will get better at nair combo'ing onto platforms and other similar extensions.
may seem too low, but keep in mind that
