NextFuckingLevel

looks at user name

Well, it depends.

A good stick in the hands of a totally untrained person is worse by a long shot.

A good stick in the hands of someone that's done training in combat arts, but not weapons is likely a little worse, but not to the degree that it's an impossible fight/sparring session.

A good stick in the hands of someone trained with any similar sized weapon? At least as good as the average person training with chucks. Could be better, but likely won't be worse. But a guy like this could do way better.

A good stick in the hands of someone trained with sticks of some kind? Yeah, chucks are fucked, even at this guy's skill level.

In other words, chucks are kinda worse than any other weapon if you ignore anything other than the way the weapon functions. If you compare them as a whole with the person using them, you only run into the time vs outcome problem with fiddly weapons.

Any given weapon has a learning curve where the more someone trains with it, the better they'll be able to hold up against any other weapon along that curve.

But chucks have a much worse learning curve than most, with no real advantages over weapons of a similar size but simpler operation. The amount of time it takes to get to a high enough level of skill to spar with someone that's good with a different weapon is enough nearer I that you could have reached a decent level of skill in multiple weapons instead, or to have reached expertise with one.

You start sparring, and that's with padded gear, soft weapons, and chucks start showing their limitations fast. Even if you pad up heavier and use standard chucks vs things like hanbo, escrima and similar, chucks just can't match anything else.

It isn't that they can't be used effectively, they absolutely can. It's that they're less effective than so many other options that as weapons the only reason to train with them is for fun. And they are very fun.

I've seen too many chucks disarmed by unarmed sparring partners to ever think of them as a practical weapon against anyone other than an untrained kid. I've taken chucks from sparring partners bare handed that were fairly skilled with them. I'm notoriously slow, which makes that feat both more and less impressive. If I could pull it off, damn near anybody could.