"If we want to debate the melee fight, that's something else entirely, but Link has some pretty significant feats for physical prowess as well that you need to be aware of if you choose to debate that route."
You're gonna have to point those out to me because I've played all but one Zelda (not counting those awful CD-i games) and haven't noticed any melee feats out of any of the Links. The closest I'd call a feat would be the final fight in Wind Waker (which was actually pretty rad), but it was a gameplay fight and not a cutscene and as cool as it was, it didn't represent Link as being anything beyond and average swordsman (who mostly just reacts and counters). Most Links have no prior combat training before the game and their fighting style boils down to just waving their krytonite sword at the nearest guy who is automatically weak to it. All of the Links start off from a humble background, one was even a freaking train conductor for crying out loud, and have no real world fighting experience. A few Links have some training with the local "sword master", but since the master's abilities aren't quantified, we have no way of knowing how strong these said masters are (it can be assumed their skill is only being measured against the other male villagers, which isn't saying much) and thus how skilled Link is in comparison. And keep in mind, since Link is the pupil, so he is technically weaker than the master by definition. Tir on the other hand was raised by a person who is noted as the best warrior in their military and has been trained for many years prior to the game. Aside from all the regular combat in the game, Tir also leads an entire army in various full military battles and ultimately defeats his dad, the guy who was supposed to be the best. This means that Tir is not only as good as his quantified father, but actually better.
Another thing about Link is his boss fights. Outside of Ganon, who we've established is automatically weak to Link, how many bosses has Link beaten with just the sword? None outside of the NES games to my knowledge, most of the bosses are immune to damage until you reveal their weak spot using the item that was conveniently located in the same building. You can swing the almighty Master Sword all you want, but it won't do anything until their obvious weak spot is exposed. Now granted this is a gameplay thing, but since there are no story boss fights we have to assume that if this were a book or movie, Link would still need to do this. My point is that Link doesn't really rely on bare combat, he relies on using obvious exploitable weakness. That doesn't make him a badass warrior, it makes him kind of an ******* actually, but at the vary least any strapping young man could beat most of his enemies the same way (except Ganon since as stated you need the Master Sword to hurt him). You can't cheese enemies to death in Suikoden, meaning that all of Tir's victories were earned in fair combat.