No, it wasn't fair back then. But to Nintendo's credit the game was so new at that point we had no idea how good or bad Dedede was.
But at this point with nearly 1 year of meta, it's obvious now that the reflect mechanic goes way too far. The opponent should have to put more effort in to reflect it. In my opinion no projectile or jab should reflect it - just aerials, some specials and smashes. That to me would be fair. This would also help Dedede not be so vulnerable to camping since he could counter camp to some extent. I understand that the design is for the gordo to be used for spacing, but the threshold is still way too low.
My only guess is the reasoning from folks at nintendo who don't play competitive smash is "OMG, his forward smash does SOO much damage and knockback...we couldn't possibly give him a projectile usable in neutral, or speed, or good frame data, or any kill setups...if we did he'd certainly be OP"
I'm seriously so frustrated with D3 lately and have demoted him to secondary status in favor of Wario. Dedede's my favorite character but if we don't get some buffs soon I'm going to be forced to drop him completely except for a handful of matchups unless I want to not win. DK gets guaranteed kills out of grab at 70% in the last patch and Dedede's gordos still get reflected by falco lasers. WTF.
Sorry went a little off topic, but topics like this make me want to rant.