Right, the hitbox on the end of Farore's is definitely a very nice addition for the move in general, and it can be used for even more than recovery (like a follow-up if you decide to warp away for spacing but you actually land the first hitbox).
It's just that nowadays, players know how to abuse the slow start-up and negate that. The problem I have with her recovery in this game is the fact that it's harder to warp somewhere far into the stage than it was in Melee. For example, in Melee Battlefield, she could be quite far away and warp to the top platform of Battlefield, even if she reappeared "through" it. In Brawl, she just keeps falling in a helpless state because of how hard it is to get her full body above the platform without doing something super obvious. You could do that on Dream Land 64 and Yoshi's Island, too. Plus, people don't expect you to warp into them in Melee, while in Brawl, it's standard to just shield, so it doesn't really do all that much if you're trying to pick a spot and you're hoping for the hitbox to help.
My main qualm, however, is how hard it is for me to sweetspot the edge in Brawl, but that's more my fault *coughedgescough*.
But whatever, while her recovery isn't the best, it's not the biggest reason for one to be turned off by Zelda unless you can just stay off the stage. My personal biggest/current problem is that I cannot get off the ledge and on the stage. I don't know what the hell to do. I can scrape together an approach, but I can't get on the stage safely at all, and I think this is part of the reason why I started on her recovery in the first place.