I think the wraith sword and hellsword changes are interesting. They still are usable against mid to lightly armored troops (perhaps -10 is too much, maybe -5?), but they are no longer good weapons to fight other thugs/scs/etc. with. Well, unless you can cast astral weapon
So instead of life draining weapons being the best choice for the majority of situations, they have more of a niche. Some of the comments from others (rather use gate cleaver, etc.) seems to back this up.
Of course, this is just my guess. I'd like to hear from Zen what his aim was.