Who controls the pacing of a match (aka who decides what "game" theyre playing) worse than Ryu?
Who plays less proactively and more reactively than Ryu?
Who has less tools than Ryu to deal with any MU/playstile?
*Ryu is #3 on my personal tier list*
ryu almost never decides the pace of the match. He plays to his opponents weaknesses and avoids their strengths. It's why he's a balanced character. You stay away from Mika and get in on guile(assuming you can exert your will on your opponent which is reliant entirely on outplaying them not using some op toolset).
Ryu is one of the most reactive characters in the game, it's why he's good. Sure he can jump in and brawl but there's a reason tokido/daigo have stopped doing that and moved towards a more laid back defensive style.
Ryu has a bunch of solid tools, but none of them are the best at what they do. His fireball is good, but punishable on reaction by a lot of the cast or just plain unsafe at a lot of ranges. His tatsu is great for blowing up throws/projectiles but it's also only usable on a read and full combo punishable, his dp is pretty great(imo it's worse than kens but hey it's invincible and meterless) but there's counterplay there too in the form of crush counters.
Ryu is #2 on my list, but I don't think that makes him easy to win with.