Well, except a hadoken is chi. So its little more than energy that take physical form. The physical embodiment of ryu's strength as a warrior. So its not like actual fire. Just like kens shoryuken(dragonpunch)!
Where as sonic boom is merely guile breaking the sound barrier with little more than his 60 inch pythons! How this is done by a regular human, i dont know.
But hey... its streetfighter.
But ya, him going deaf, while sorta sad and messed up, isn't the same as burning hands from chi! Hehe XD
and Dhalsim breaking his leg by stretching it