You're missing the point - I am making a conscious decision to retain the stacks instead of consuming them for the added effect. Someone else may make the opposite valuation. The ability to do both is great! Learning to modify your play to utilize the effect in a way that best suits YOUR play style is key.
For me, it's more like 16-20% recharge. Consider that's the same recharge buff as a dedicated power like SR's quickness, but without needing to dedicate a power pick, and that's not counting the additional end reduction - practically an SO's worth in EVERY power. That is a tremendous advantage requiring no other investment. You bet it's worthy of some downside!
There's a knockdown, a slow, and not every melee set has other mitigation abilities, either, (fire melee for instance), means that the set is just fine. Heck, it even has an AoE gap-closer/teleport with a relatively short cooldown. If I could level any complaint against savage melee, it's the lack of an attack that deals hard-hitting up-front damage instead of a DoT.