countrypistol
Kombatant
I don't have the same problem with Ryu, reason being that fireball can be absorbed standing with relative ease, but banana has to be moving v skilled, which results in an automatic punch that can be whiff punished. You can neutral jump a fireball too, whereas you can't with the banana for obvious reasons. As for the DP, it has really narrow hozontal range and can be baited, where as chain is all horizontal range.You can do the same with Ryu and LP fireball and DP.
I'm not dismissing your point, a good Ryu can space fireballs, pokes and anti airs in such a way that closing the gap becomes infuriating, but with Birdie you need about five minutes of match up experience to achieve the same. It's like the Ryu match up on crank.