[jowe01]

In a game with 10 ennemies:

If you send in a champion:
a)Either 10 ennemy comanders die and your commander lives or
b)Your commander dies and 9 ennemy commanders die

If you do not send in a champion:
9 ennemy commanders die and your commander lives

Hence, if you are not too keen on the trident, sending somebody in does not seem to be such an attractive option. At best, you will kill one more commander, but for that, you have to win all the fights. In all other cases, your commander dies and the number of killed enemy commanders is just the same as if you would not have sent anybody in.

For me, this is an argument for making the trident more powerful. In addition to melee bonuses it should have some valuable magic abilities.