Thoughts on gunblade (and its active?)

I'm wondering if players/Riot have any thoughts on the health of gunblade.

It's been out for a long time now, and it seems like it's settled into a pretty odd niche. Its active makes it one of the burstiest items in the game, but only a very small number of champions efficiently use the stats it offers.

I think that Katarina and Akali's surge in popularity/winrate definitely owes something to gunblade. They're both extremely snowbally champions, and the active gives them much higher kill threat in the early/mid game, once they complete it.

But the item is also getting picked up by some really weird champions. Notably LB, who doesn't have any AD ratios, but who needs the extra active burst to assassinate people.

On the other hand, a lot of hybrid champions who can use the stats efficiently are not buying the item, because the burst active doesn't really fit into their play pattern. It's pretty rare that I see build it, for instance.

So, some champions who don't even like the stats are buying it just for the access to point-and-click burst. Some of the few remaining hybrid champions who actually want the stats aren't buying it, because so much of the item value is loaded into that burst active.

Basically, what I'm asking is: should such a powerful, game-changing item active be on an item with such a niche stat line? The two (stat line and active) don't seem to have much of anything to do with each other. It's not as if hybrid champs across the board needed, for some special reason, access to more point-and-click burst.

I think there's maybe a broader conversation that needs to happen about the health of the active itself. It kind of reminds me of deathfire grasp... making bursty champions so bursty that they can power through some of their intended gates and counters.

But, at the very least, if Riot believes in this active, I think it should be attached to a more widely accessible AP item.

That being said, what do you all think?

(TL;DR gunblade stats are extremely niche. Active is also niche but extremely powerful, and valuable to lots of champs who don't want the stats. This leads to some wonky situations)

Edit: accidentally wrote "lichbane" when I meant "DFG"