Yeah the only difference between my Paladin being able to simply run 2-3 steps of the ranged combo during an M12Sp2 tankbuster orb drop versus if I want to play it ultra-safe my Gunbreaker doing 2-3 ranged attacks is a fixed-value loss of self-healing. The potency in damage I don't do is balanced into the overall kits of the tanks so it has 0 impact, and the self-healing is of contextual value only, as not all tankbusters/damages line up to be healable from the swordgasm-combo in the first place.

Is the default ranged attack bad at 150 potency? Of course. But it's no different gameplay-wise than any other damaging GCD, so it has no bearing on how you play. It's not like our filler ranged attacks run on a 1.0s GCD and hence force a difference in player-side gameplay performance.