Remember to maintain a positive attitude towards everyone here. It's fine to state your opinions, but please be respectful to everyone while doing so.
In my opinion, the nerfs were necessary, but a bit too harsh. I mean, there was no reason to nerf Her DTilt. At all. But to be fully honest, I find post-patch Bayo more fun to play compared to how brain-dead she was pre-patch. If we want to push the character further, we need to quit complaining about what she used to be.
Funny thing that you ask for respect and then go claim that Bayonetta was for brain dead players pre-patch.
Anyway let me analyse my points to make myself more clear of what is brain dead and what needs effort in smash 4.
If you have the experience in fighting games that I do you start noticing some patterns in gameplay regarding the characters. They have three levels of learning curve. They 're the beginner class example: Mario, Yoshi, Dr. Mario, Kirby, Little Mac, Cloud, Diddy, they are simple and easy to use so new players to the game start to understand the mechanics. They are reliable characters, good frame data and they do not die easily especially when you learn good D.I.
Then you have the intermediate class for more experienced players that they want more variety and options in their playstyle. Examples are Sheik, Duck Hunt Duo, Ness, Lucas, Pit that characters have exploits and weaknesses but they can be pretty basic in their execution. Easy combos but they rely on reads and strings.
Then we have the expert class. That rank is for characters that have great strengths and big weaknesses, Donkey Kong, Ganondorf, Ike, Corrin, Zero Suit, Bayonetta, Ryu. Also, their moves and combos require having mastered the neutral meta and create a playstyle that is suited for this specific characters. Ryu playstyle is different from Mario's, but Mario's playstyle, if you learn him well, will help you play most of the cast pretty good. They have command inputs, bad frame data that do not allow you to make any mistakes especially in Bayonetta's case she can die easily because of her weight.
Bayonetta when she was released her unique gimmick was her aerial combos, her big weakness was her bad frame data on neutral and the specific landing lag she still has after using her aerial specials. Her dABK was a command input which by smash standards is more difficult to apply inside a combo, rather than do an up throw to an up air. Plus her combo game required more command inputs and precise execution because in case of a miss input you would drop the combo instantly and your opponent could easily punish you and you couldn't react at all especially against fast fallers.
So when Bayonetta did a combo let's say sideB to holdB to upTitl to UpB to ABK to 2ABK to UpAir and the opponent couldn't escape with smash DI from UpB or second chance from 2ABK with an Air Dodge or a third chance with an Air dodge from the UpAir, then he deserved all the damage he would get from this combo. The Bayonetta player used 7 inputs 3 that were avoidable.
When I see combos like 5 upTitls from Mario that are inescapable plus a frame trap grab and have 50-50 option to up throw land another 5 up airs and 50-50 kill with an UpB or a Fair, this is what I call a brain-dead character. But I do not complain about it, I know Mario should be an easy character to use because it is for beginners. If high-level players use Mario, of course, the meta for this character would grow more and the ball is in our court to tackle this match up with the expert level characters because he also had specific weakness.
But this mentality is not existent in the majority of the smash scene, and I find it pathetic for whiners to complain for nerfs because they do not want to get better but rather crippling other characters to get on their level. So if a good player has mastered an expert character the average player would complain to limit the options of the expert player so the whiner should stop complaining...
Well, I completely disagree with this point of view. Bayonetta was never overpowered. It was too early to be judged, then no one bothered to learn the match up but we had Sheik and Diddy smashing and carrying players with 50-50 options and down throws with upAirs(two inputs to take a stock versus 7 inputs with command buffered) and when Bayonetta got into the game suddenly her combos were too much to handle...
Now that Bayonetta is broken and expert players coming through after the nerf I still hear complaints about Bayonetta and Witch Time or her UpB.
Well I say it is time to stop and get good or STFU and stop playing competitively.