Per my pup spreadsheet calculations, using Bukhis target outside Abyssea, and using 15% base crit rate for Smite and 10% for Pummel, I have Smite at 1627 and Pummel at 1610 for a Taru (140 total str). For Elvaan (151 total str), 1699 for Smite, 1677 for Pummel. Overall, Smite has barely more than a 1% lead over Pummel. I don't see how you're ending up with numbers indicating a ~20% lead.

Regardless, Smite always felt rather weak when directly compared against Ukko's ludicrously high crit rates. At least we know that there's not a lot of room for them to nerf Smite (it's only ~5% above the general baseline for crit-based weaponskills), as compared to Ukko's. Dropping 5% crit rate from the above puts Taru at 1583 and Elvaan at 1654, putting Pummel about 1.5% ahead of Smite.