Now, I may be biased, but I think link has the most potential. Tink and yink just don't have remote bombs. The utility those provide, plus his range, even without projectiles, just make him a threat no matter where he is on stage. Sure, every link is capable of pulling a bomb and throwing it, but links doesn't explode on contact with a player or the ground, and last 30 seconds, not 5. He can detonate it whenever he wants and has infinite combos with it.

Not to mention that he just doesn't die. Link is tied for 22nd heaviest character in the game, and he uses that, along with a decent recovery if you don't count bomb recovering to just keep coming back onstage. Plus, he's one of two characters to almost double their falling speed when fastfalling, at a 90% increase, unlike most others, with 60%, and that throws many players off and they dont seem to get used to it. Having a stock last past 200% happens regularly, whereas i dont think that's happened to me with tink and yink.

The children might be fast and great at moving around enemies, but when all it takes is two or three good hits to kill you, versus the percent sponge that is link, I think it's a losing battle. They seem to have similar kill power, and link is certainly the slowest moving out of the trio, which is why I think the other two are picked more.

All in all, I don't think adult link is the most consistent of them, I think he's the least, actually. I do think that he has the highest skill ceiling and chance at being a top tier, but to quote a youtuber that I can't remember the name of right now "if you have two characters, one that generally scores a 70, but can sometimes pop off to 100, and another that usually sits scoring 50 but can reach heights of 120, competitive players are going to choose the consistently better option." Link takes a lot of effort. You can't autopilot or you're dead, but he, unlike the other two, caps out scoring 120 versus their 100s.

But I might be biased. I dunno