I don't know about that, Abysian PD is the only reason I'm still going in this game, I've found it to be _very_ _very_ cost effective when backed up by a couple of mages.
My only complaint with it is that the damn PD salamanders don't ever seem to cast pheonix power first turn, which would _greatly_ increase the spell selection they have.
But yeah I agree that a lot of other nation's PD don't seem to be worth much.