Hero generating magic quickly is a big question mark. Unless your enemy has no neutral and walks into Hero's normals, Hero's magic generation can be painfully slow when so much of his neutral, oos, and recovery rely on it.
I'll admit that point is built only on the few competitive sets I've seen with Hero. If you're a Hero main I'll definitely defer to your judgement.
Recovery wise I really don't think Hero needs much mana, you almost never need level 3 up-b (Zoom is a better option if you need that type of recovery and with the "rng boost" at low you will most likely get it), Zoom is only 8 mana and level 2 up-b is 9. I don't know Hero's ideal oos options so I can't really comment on that. Literally one aerial would generate enough to recover.
Neutral would be a lot weaker at 0 for sure (You'd need like a hit or two just to get one level 2 side-b) I'll admit that. Hero's normals are
very slow, leaving him mainly to rely on his aerials (which are okay at best) and largely play on the defensive.
Idk about the too soon thing. It's best to ban later now then now, because if you ban now, then you would have less of a chance to figure out counterplay sometime in the future. Those who want to put in serious hours with Hero have to do so in Training or Online (whicb are both not the best), assuming they don't have someone else to play alongisde with them.
Yeah, I'm not pro-ban in the slightest, I'm only ok with banning if a character becomes too overcentralizing in the long run (I was for Frii Miis in Smash 4), but other than that... nah. I can see why they would ban it, but I really don't like that they went to that extrene.
Well it's not like Hero is banned everywhere else, the meta (and therefore counters) is still gonna develop with him in other regions.
It sucks for the players in that scene that potentially wanted to play him, but they said that their scene was generally in agreement of the ban so yeah.
Honestly I enjoy watching Hero, and considering he's pretty niche in competitive at the moment (granted Joker was too until Leo started dominating everyone) I don't think the ban is the right move. However if your problem with the character is based on their overall moveset ideology moreso than their damage numbers/general ability, then I can get why that wouldn't matter to you.
Ironically enough, the very things that make him a "problem" to face are exactly what make him so exciting to watch.