The main thing about my region is that anyone I'd beat with Falco, minus Sheik mains, I can pretty consistently beat with Link.
The problem people, Silly Kyle and Tag$(SV) I have the ABILITY to beat with Link, but generally favor using space animals.
People like Tai, Jetfour, GamerGuitarist7, Taj, Forward, and Axe are going to beat me regardless of who I use, so I'll stick to Link for the experience.
I'm playing Link to improve my Falco, whom I still main. I've gotten to the point where I have certain habits so imbedded into my system that I'm trying to force them out by learning, and playing a horrible character (Link.) I chose Link since he's the most similar to Falco out of the low tiers, and because his strengths and weaknesses are relevant to my own personal strengths and weaknesses as a Falco player.
As for the LOZ series, I'm honestly not a fan. I personally dislike OOT, and Majora's Mask. I never completed either due to boredom. The only LoZ games I honestly enjoy are Link's Awakening, my second-favorite hand-held game of all time, Link's Adventure, and A Link to The Past. As for Starfox, it's easily my favorite SNES game, and SF64 is easily my favorite N64 game, which reflects why I main both Fox and Falco.
As for Link's versatility I kinda disagree with you there. He has virtually no OOS game, and a huge portion of his movepool are unsafe except in extremely specific circumstances, and are generally inferior in comparison to his legitimately GOOD moves. His strategies are extremely simplistic and linear. Against any character that can CC to respectable percentages his entire strategy is "How can I safely get them over 50%, so that the rest of my movepool is actually viable?" Even correctly spaced, fair and jabs are punishable by most of the cast until just under 60% just by holding down, and toward Link.
Ranting aside; I do enjoy how Link plays. He puts a whole new spin on Falco, and how the game's played. I've played other low tiers in the past, but none of have them have clicked with me how Link does. I pretty much only use Falco vs Sheik now though.