The only way to be a "good Ryu player" in SF V is to have almost unlimted patience and play an overwhelmengly defensive game which seeks to bait the opponent into making mistakes which your Ryu can then punish.
A small buff to his fireball game was given in AE Update, i.e. Season 3, however:
- (VT1 or VT2, either one) During either of his V-Triggers, Ryu Season 3's fireballs (Denjin Hadokens) are now two frames fasters than ever before, and the EX-versions are four frames faster than ever before.
During VT1/VT2, Ryu's denjin hadokens are 42 frames in total (previously they were 44), and if it is an EX-Denjin Hadoken it is 40.
They also increased the damage and stun done by Denjin Hadokens which actually means you can deal a fair amount of damage/stun with them now.
Long story short SF V Ryu can now zone during V-Trigger, and they actually hurt. During VT1/VT2 you can throw a Denjin Hadoken and always have enough time to Shoryuken a jump, even if it's not EX-version.
Outside of VT1/VT2 however the answer to good Ryu play? Play defensively, abuse his cross-up LK, rarely engage in neutral/footsies, and generally you will need to out-think, out-play and out-space your opponent in order to win.
He is not, however, the worst character in current SFV AE meta: that dubious honor goes to Zeku who has the same problems Ryu has except he has even less reach with his normals, even less damage-burst potential and and an even slower walk-speed and a less reliable Reversal option than Ryu.
Currently also 'below' Ryu in SFV AE meta:
- Zeku (as mentioned)
- Juri (some would say they're on the same tier though, and don't let Infil's use of Juri fool you into thinking she's good; people mostly simply don't know the Juri match-up + Infil is just that good)
According to japanese players (namely Itabashi, Nemo, Fuudo and Mago) they made a recent tier chart and placed in Ken in the same tier as Ryu, along with Alex and Juri.
The only character below Ryu/Ken/Alex/Juri? Zeku.
Zeku is really bad right now.