Is Zed's laning really that oppressive?

I dunno, I just played the Azir vs. Zed matchup which many tout as heavily in the latter's favor as many touted Febiven's solo kills against Faker's Azir as only being due to the matchup.

It really wasn't that bad, I feel like the mana issues people talk about are overplayed. Yes you will go oom if you attempt to match his pushing early but just throw out your waveclear spell once in a while. Also people at low ELO can't CS and the MP you gain back from is actually very nice. He got an early lead in CS before first buy (3-4CS) but once I returned with I was able to match his pushing for the most part and start to poke him out when he went to CS. I kept pushing him in and poking him so he never got to all-in. And guess who was more useful in teamfights?

I also feel like can smash him in lane if you play well early until you get some armor/MP regen. There are others but none that I've played so I can't say for myself. or is also your friend.

Also word of advice, if you can't lane against him, then learn him. Once you figure out how he wants to WEQ you then it's so much easier to dodge it when playing against him. It's very telegraphed for most Zed players save for maybe Master-Challenger Zed mains.