Absolutely a improvement over the original, from her excellent new visuals and the unique mechanics behind her Flame Crash, and how it factors in total accumulated time spent diing without landing, allowing you to add to your dive time from multiple bounces for the relaunch effect.
I do wonder what the consequence is for grounded Rocket Jumps though. Normal jumping is a vulnerable move because she cant jump into/on enemies, but a grounded Rocket Jump can, and sends you higher, and doesn't seem to impact the use of any of her other moves in a negative way. You can still do 3 wall Rocket Jumps/Hover Sparks, you can still Flame Crash, so I don't really know why you would ever normal jump except for incredibly niche shorthop scenarios.
Still I found her to be a very interesting character to use!