The only times power blows are actually useful are for silly bait attempts and stage interactions. After a CB!, most characters in this game can do more damage with a actual combo than they would with their power blow. Power Launchers give every character a ceiling attack (in theory) and open up a lot of juggle potential.
Power blows specifically give stage bonuses on certain stages that allow followups for continued damage, then there are situational tools like pillars for sit down stuns for even more followups and walls for extended damage. Plus there's virtually 0 chance of you missing the followup and losing damage.
The power launcher in retrospect doesn't look like the possible 10 or so more bonus damage making up for the huge risk you're taking using it and possibly dropping your combo. I can only see the launcher being a better option when there is a ceiling, no objects in the area that your opponent can be smashed into for a sit down stun and no special electric walls for your opponent to bounce off of.
And of course power launcher's usefulness will vary depending on the character's juggle potential. Like Akira for example... Knee > Knee > Knee > Knee > Knee... oh I'm getting excited just thinking about it...
Janns 4pp after Mid p hold seems nerfed.
Jesus I noticed that. See.. that's why I just do 346P after I mid punch hold, looks like that's going to be the optimum thing to do once again.
Power Launchers will be used almost exclusively after damage is optimized. You just get more damage. The issue right now is the timing is much harder than you'd think for the juggle. If you look at the beginning of the stream you'll see a bunch of us trying and failing Power Launcher combos over and over with every character that was tried. It's trickier than you'd think.
It looked like it. It'll probably end up being the "pro" thing to do later on in the game's life but most people will probably be going for power blows for a good while.