His fireballs are literally no worse than Ryu's at jump range outside of startup being a frame slower. Their travel speed is a little worse, too. Akuma's DP is also marginally better, with lower recovery frames and identical frame data otherwise. The only reason you have to respect Ryu's more in most cases is because you can blow up Akuma's lifebar harder for jumping one. Akuma's AA game can also be stronger, since he can use some of his other AAs to net knockdowns with prime positioning for oki.
To say one gives Akuma too much respect by respecting his fireball game ignores how much this character actually handles trying to jump over one.
That said, Gief deals with Akuma pretty solidly, and unlike in SFIV, Akuma can't just teleport and avoid Gief's oki game. That's on top of slightly better health and stun in a game where normals do grey life damage on block, and stun draining so slowly, while damage is pretty identical on many aspects to SFIV. He really doesn't like taking hits at all this time around. It feels like a legitimate weakness, on top of how stubby he feels (Everyone is kinda stubby, but he feels REALLY stubby compared to, like, Ryu). I'm sure Gief isn't the only one that will give him issues. I'm just waiting to see what Akuma players will feel about Cammy.