Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I haven't played brawl+ pika since before 4.0's official release, so I didn't realize this change was in the final codeset.
This change was not supposed to be in the final 4.0 codeset. It was never even talked about once in the broom and was only tested on the irc. For those wondering, this is what the pika thread looks like in the broom right now (I won't list the names of the posters for obvious reasons):
Post #1: "We need to fix his D throw, but I would like to see another move buffed to compensate for this.
I cant think of anything though."
Post #2: "Pikachu is honestly a **** character. I don't think we should consider giving Pikachu any alterations outside of fixing the Dthrow."
And that's it. We have had very little actual discussion on pika compared to some other characters, which we have pages upon pages of discussion on. I'm not going to get into that right now, but you can probably guess which ones. And if you're wondering, neither of those posts are mine, although you can bet that I will be posting on that thread after I finish with this one.
The problem with adding lag to it like that is that it doesn't just nerf the dthrow against ff'ers that pika could chainthrow. It nerfs it against everyone, making it impossible for him to combo off of it at all. This is in here as a temporary fix, but it shouldn't have made it in at all. The temporary fix for pika should be "don't play ff'ers against him." Or "if you're pika playing against a ff'er, don't go chain throwing them." We've had soft bans on mk in friendly play long enough. I don't see why this can't be treated similarly. By slowing down the dthrow, it not only makes it worthless for chainthrowing ff'ers, but also makes it worthless for anything against the rest of the cast, when it's always been a great lead-in to utilt, which sets up for uair chains, making it a staple of brawl+ pika.
I'm not too happy this made it in when I was specifically told that it was being removed after I had tested it and gave feedback.