Zeku has two stances that he has to switch two and fro for access to similar tools as akuma. Hell some of them arent even as good as his.
So if you’re trying to balance the game overall, thats kind of a massive glaring issue. Gameplay wise its sort of okayish but the man is still making other characters kind of null.
Akuma is silly in a bunch of ways. Thankfully not as nonsensical as SF4 Akuma. SF4 Akuma was on some next level nonsense.
I’d rather they just keep buffing the other shotos. Making Akuma a yolo paper thin character doesn’t do the meta any good. Balancing characters around health sucks in general really, but at least the health/stun values are more normalized in this game compared to other games.
Akuma B. Hp shouldn’t AA cross up. Capcom nerfed Cammy’s get that fucker too.
They are both characters where if you are neutrally jumping at them, you’re already a bad player. They control the skies, you gotta hold it.
If you do jump, you better hope they’re shook and block. That’s the only way you can jump at those characters. Scare them into thinking you’re going to footsie so they block the jump in or get crossed up.
Most Cammys don’t DP, even in diamond. Only the tippy top grandmasters DP AA. I’ve been getting hella crossup jump-ins post nerf on this bitch with Mika. Capcom broke the crutch and majority can’t/won’t adapt. 
You’d have to make Ryu, Ken, and Sakura all sorts of batshit crazy to be as good as Akuma.
But that’s sort of the problem: which buffs (which keep those 3 characters strategically unique) do you give them so they are different than Akuma but on similar power levels?
There are tools to play with but those characters would get, as mentioned earlier, way buckwild.
Might as well do it, makes them more fun to play and keeps the race close with Akuma rather than Akuma being the only tournament shoto unless Ceroblast goes HAM.
Got distracted by voting but wanted to say: if you really like Laura man, stick with her. IMO the chars in this game can feel so wonky that when you find someone that legit clicks with you it is worth sticking it out with them even if they may not rate high on the tier lists.
Definitely keep trying people out to see if anyone else resonates but don’t force it. I’m playing Kolin now because I legit like playing her and legit didn’t like the way that Laura plays (its why I didn’t even bother trying to go back to Mika; the grappler life is not for me in this game). But if you like her, keep at it. Losing the muscle memory and match up experience you’ve built up so far is not something to do lightly.
Also in general tier lists and shit like that only really start to matter when both players are playing near peak. Yeah even in Gold you can feel how good Akuma is and such but the players at these ranks are suboptimal as fuck so what makes a way bigger different are fundamental choices and approach. If those are sound you should be okay with pretty much anyone (as others have said, just echoing for emphasis).
Biggest thing having played Laura myself is that when you get training mode time work on what you do up close - block strings, pressure sequences, resets, mix ups, whatever. Drill that stuff into your muscle memory and get it as grimy as possible. Laura lives and dies by the close up mix so you really want that to be as good as you can make it.
Also work on her post-stun combos. I’m not sure which ones you are doing but I still think the main thing that she has going for her is stun = dead 99% of the time so long as you know some of her better post-stun combos. You’d be surprised how easy it is to get down some Idom lookin’ stuff, and that is at least one more way you can lock in rounds with her.
Good luck man, the struggle is real. 
Exactly. You really have to go the other way.
You gotta take something from Akuma. @The_Shakunetsu suggested taking away his ground fireball. That is silly, but it could work.
Or do as you suggest and just make him paper. That’s lazy, but it can work.
If you’re playing Laura go fucking hamhocks. You gotta tilt these scrubs and command grab 3x in a row and then do that raw dash grab.
Ooh, my vote.
Tokido, No
G, No
Punk No.
You don’t have to. If you buff the other characters it’ll get to a point where Akuma will be harder to be the only shoto to use and they may do better vs other characters that Akuma struggles with.
Like Akuma really doesn’t want to have to fight a lot of Birdies or Giefs this season, but other shotos likely fare better.
So let’s follow your line of thinking for a bit.
What would you need to give Ryu to match Akuma? While still making Ryu, not Akuma.
Normally I agree with the philosophy of buffs over nerfs, but I have two concerns here:
You could do it theoretically a lot of ways. Start adding damage buffs to normals or fireballs so it pays off more to land them and his fireballs are clearly better in the neutral. Could also make his VT1 just full yolo for 2 bars so he can compete in the trigger game with a 2 bar he can activate faster than Akuma. EX fireball is legit cheap, it would just be cheaper with a cheaper trigger to VTC off of.
In theory there’s always a million ways.
Okay, but now you have a Ryu, who does extra damage on all his normals… what about the rest of the cast? It’s important to not that Ryu vs Akuma isn’t a vacuum.
What does Ryu VT1 do?
Chargable fbs (up to unblockable)
Fb drains meter
Super does stun
Punches and fbs get dmg buff i think?
I miss anything?
It would work for Ryu considering his normals aren’t like the hugest point of his game, so if he does get them more damage. More damage on fireball makes that more of a problem also. Yeah.
Give that man his buttons back. Make st. Mp +2 on block. Give st.lk it’s range back. Cr. Mp +6 or +7 on hit. Make cr. Hk 7 frame startup. +10-15 damage on his srk for the kicks. Boom.
1-Nay
2-Yay
3-Nay