If King Dedede is in the game, then Charizard having a slightly better horizontal recovery is more than reasonable.
Not sure why you're using Dedede to talk about horizontal recovery (as his is pretty shaky) but whether or not Zard's recovery becomes broken with an airspeed buff is entirely a question of how much they would give him.
And I don't think just a little more airspeed is enough to fix his problem offensively. But that's always up for debate.
Fly, while having good armor, only has armor during the start up. Also, you can't grab at not full distance. If you are at the ledge when not full distance, you go above it.
Yes you can. This isn't Melee. There is a certain point right after startup where you can't grab it but you can certainly grab it well before you enter free-fall (ie. non-max distance).
Most projectiles won't clank with it unless it has a hurtbox, like Gyro or samus down b. Caping and Counter are super risky, and because the 2 hits, sometimes you will only counter the first hit, leaving you to get the full blitz worth of knockback. I've had this happen vs Ryukred's Shulk as well as a random Little Mac on FG. Caping also doesn't send that far since, if you need FB to recover, by the time you reach the stage you're already out of momentum or close to it. If anything, more aerial speed will make caping flare blitz more rewarding.
Most projectiles won't. Most projectile characters can make it clank if they know which one to use though. And not countering both hits is a super uncommon situation, if it occurs at all (counters get some invincibility on hit). Kuroganehammer doesn't even have a frame for hit 2. I can see why you would argue that it increases the risk but all it really does is put extra emphasis on the opponent not countering too early, which is really not that hard if you're playing offline and not accounting for lag (hopefully I understand this interaction correctly).
If you cape FB and it forces Zard to FB again Just cape it twice. Again, not super hard if you're playing offline. Cape Zard with no second jump and he's dead. And if you're out of momentum by the time you get done FBing, you're probably out of airjumps anyway so RIP.
Because a little aerial speed buff? its not like adding a little bit of aerial speed will suddenly make him move like Lucas. He will still be vulnerable in the air. Flare Blitz still would have heavy armor and still get ****ed by items/strong hurtboxes, Fly will still only have 10 frames of super armor and will still be vulnerable during the actual hurtboxes, and his jumps will be just as underwhelming as they always are.
If you want to read the first thing I wrote again:
"It depends how much better "better" airspeed is but lets say for argument's sake they make it as good as DK's"
Which isn't a little buff. That's a huge buff. This is also the hypothetical buff that got me talking about how broken Zard's recovery would be relative to other heavies. You don't need FB if you have DK's airspeed. You just need Fly. That's why his recovery would be broken. Non-max distance Fly on every recovery is too OP.
10 frames of armor is a ton. You meant to say hitboxes but I know what you mean. And his airjumps are really sucky. I'm with you on that one.
Sooo, all heavies are supposed to have sub par options and slow aerial movement because they are heavy?
All heavies are supposed to be somewhat gimpable (
even if the rest of their options are bad) because they're heavies. They take the least WBKB in the game. So... no. That's not what I said.
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. Look at smash 4 Ike. Good horizontal recovery, good vertical recovery, good frame data, and jumps don't automatically commit you to p much standing in place for 60 frames. And yet, Ike isn't OP.
So for starters this isn't a fair comparison because Ike isn't even in Zard's weight class (albeit still close). I can see why you bring him up though as he's probably one of the only heavies with recoveries about as good as Zard's.
Ike is a balanced character. His recovery is just gimpable enough for a character of his weight (taking into account airspeed, specials and airjumps). Landing lag values are brilliant for a
spacing character like him. Zard's landing lag values, especially that of Fair, are far less than ideal for a
spacing character but would work fine if Zard dealt as much damage as Bowser (a
bruiser). AC frame data leaves quite a bit to be desired for a
bruiser but would work fine if the landing lag data looked more like that of a
spacing character like Dedede.
and jumps don't automatically commit you to p much standing in place for 60 frames
Ike and Zard both have 7 frames of jumpsquat so uh... Read Kuroganehammer m8 c'mon.
Casual play with charizard usually consists of side b. Not jumping.
I think this oversimplifies a distinct perspective on Zard but I will neither agree or disagree with you here.