That still works out to over 20% damage per bar, which is twice as efficient as your average x-ray. And it's very common to hit your opponent with sharpen, unlike those Kotal kombos that require blood buff, rune buff, and 3 stacks of parry buff. These actually look pretty damn viable...
If you're going for the kill with 3 meter, even without sharpen, that is 60%+ damage. I wish there was a way to put the fans at the end (so its unbreakable at that point), but that's still something an opponent has to respect.