To say that Olimar has been "nerfed in pretty much every way" is straight up objectively incorrect. Considering the overall nerfs across the roster this character, I can assure you, will fare better than previously. Alright so let's first address the areas overall in which he has been actually nerfed:
1) Pikmin durability being reduced drastically. His Pikmin in 3.02 basically never died via being attacked (barring whites of course), only dying due to going offstage or from Olimar himself dying. This meant that his Side B could potentially act as an instant pressure tool once it had latched and if you had spaced your Side B well, forcing your opponent into one of the three following situations:
- They take the damage, but of course that is unfavourable since you're taking damage (duh) and quite a bit especially if you've got more than one Pikmin latched onto you
- They shield so they don't take the hits from the Pikmin, but that makes them an easy target for a grab and in the case of 3.02 Olimar that could lead to an easy 60%+
- They could attack the Pikmin off but like for example 2 you can bait the attack and punish them in the same way.
However, now since your Pikmin is more likely to die from an attack you have to be more weary of using Side B. You can still use it to bait an attack but it acts as more of a double edged sword since you're likely to lose a Pikmin. However, saying that Side B is useless is like saying Smash 4 Olimar's Side B is useless (it isn't) and this Side B is a much better move due to the fact that you get much more of a reward off of it compared to that game.
2) The damage reductions he's received almost across that board barring on a couple of moves. This was done simply out of design. Olimar's 3.02 BnBs were incredibly easy for how much damage you could get off them. The fact that you could deal Ganon level damage starting from a fantastic long grab and essentially spamming USmash and aerials was absurd, especially since all his moves are also disjointed. His damage was toned down to be reasonable, there's simply nothing more too it.
I'd say these are his most major nerfs, however there are some buffs that simply cannot and should not be ignored:
1) The speed buff yellows received is big and to say that they're still not useful is stupid and clearly a testament to one not having spent enough time actually trying them out. On the contrary they're incredibly useful now as every single Pikmin move with yellows is now more safe and easier to combo. They're relatively low knockback allows them you to string from them at higher percents into moves such as BAir much more easily, offering Olimar better kill setups.
2) FSmash has been improved in every way. In 3.02 it was pretty awful but now it has a lot more utility due to being stronger and due to the fact that the hitboxes don't terminate until the Pikmin touches the ground. This allows for it to be an incredibly safe (and potentially very strong if you're using a red for example) tech chase option that covers everything barring the tech back. It can also be used to hit opponents offstage and if they're below and infront of you while you're on a platform. The former point, along with the almost universal nerf to recoveries, has made his solid edgeguarding game even better.
3) The knockback adjustments made to make it so that all Pikmin forms have knockback around that of budded Pikmin leads to Olimar being much less of a "snowball" character, offering a greater level of overall consistency while not compromising the overall reward he gains from flowing his Pikmin too much. Flowering Pikmin is still worthwhile, but flowered Pikmin are no longer completely absurd. Meanwhile leaf Pikmin are overall better.
4) Starting with 4 Pikmin and respawning with 2. The latter point in particular is incredibly useful as you now no longer have to waste any invincibility on plucking Pikmin, allowing you get straight back into the game.
I can understand that a bunch of people are going to be upset initially with the changes Olimar has received, but I genuinely believe they, in the grand scheme of things, help to improve and round off Olimar's design overall. Granted he's not perfect, and there are still match-ups that will give him a lot of trouble (spacies, Marth etc) but I believe him to be more of a contender this time around. I may or may not be wrong though. We'll have to give it some time.
