People are grossly overestimating his dp. Once you learn to bait and the timing to punish it, it's no big deal.
His normals are not okay. 5C and 2C are his longest reaching pokes, but they're slow. 5A is meh.
Yes, he has a ground dash that takes ages to start up. His airdashes are okay, nothing to brag about though.
Anti-zoning tools? Yeah, they're slow too. Good luck trying to catch Liz or Naoto with it.