Since they changed the stab after the turn rate nerf it has been completely borked and OP.
I was telling cmp about instastab abuse last week and how it basically broke cRPG. He said he reverted it last month on EU, but couldn't do it on NA yet. Not sure if that's actually true on EU, I only play strat battles there and am laggy to begin with. Hell in NA strat battles we still have polestagger for some hilariously awful reason.
I too preferred the old stabs, and the wonkiness of the new thrust is especially noticeable against people of lower ping. I think polearms and 2handers both got screwed up by it, but there's nothing like dueling a 2hander with 30+ less ping than you and being insta stabbed while their arms are still at their chest. Made thrust chambering much more unreliable too, something I basically had down perfect before, especially against polearms. Pikes often seem to to register hits while being tucked into someones chest mid animation just as often, which makes me rage more than 2hands and is much more common on battle/Strat.
I wouldn't care if the thrust animations were actually sped up visually, but now sometimes stabs seem to register with incomplete animations, which is the real annoying thing.
Being griefed by thrust stun in a normal situation usually involves someone blocking you and their polearm buddy stabbing you before you can block. Its usually fine in 1 vs 1s, but a faster attacker can use thrust stun as a window to get inside your reach and possibly get a hit off, or at least getting a footwork advantage. Regardless the game isn't balanced for duels, but battle, and any moments of helplessness (old polestagger, arrow stun, horse bump) are unfun mechanics that easily get you killed.