1h stab isn't too much of a problem for me. Heck, I'm using a stabless 1h no shield just fine right now. Out of all the stab 1hs, only side sword is much of a threat without too many weaknesses. Side sword should probably go back to its original stats of 28c 28p and 100 speed, now that cut and stab are equally important. All the other stab 1hs are short or have weak cut damage. I don't think 1h stab is any easier than polearm or 2h stabs, they are all really good.
The other tweaked animations might be similar, but I feel that speeding up the 1h stab animation to match the sweetspot just makes it look really fast. If you're at a medium distance and the 1h releases a stab, the animation speeds up and hits you faster than you way before you would have thought. The animation sped up so that the sweetspot is near the middle at a similar timing of the old sweetspot, which results in a burst of range. I feel this way with the polearm overhead, too, since its speed is comparable to other animations but it just looks much faster. 1h stab does indeed glance up close and far away, although the shorter ones can look up/down to hit closer.
