upon further playing I've decided pikachu is fine still.
I was just mad that QA is back to normal, but most importantly I'm mad that you CAN'T CANCEL A GROUNDED THUNDER INTO SHIELD
Everything else that was nerfed about him I either didn't notice, or didn't care about. His air mobility seems a little worse but with bair he doesn't need it. The fact that thunder doesn't always spike was a little upsetting at first, but I can work around that.
I never did lock stuff anyways, or at least not deliberately. As far as all his other moves go, nair seems a bit weaker (I might be wrong) but the jump cancel on thunder actually seems to work earlier now so you can get some new combos in there that didn't work before. Either that or I just never tried them before. Like, utilt > thunder > jump > uair > thunder-actually-hits-here > nair/anything. I suppose SDI ruins that a bit, but what DOESN'T it ruin?
Against bowser I don't really know what to do, other than thunder all day and get damage with jolts. Nair fortunately is a reliable killer, and I'm pretty sure usmash is too.