Alright so I'm personally an actual maniac when it comes to these weapons and I've always believed that even in their current state they're still sort of slept on because "no one knew how to use them": everyone seemed to just want to finish the 5 hit combo as soon as possible to get the flinch, banking on wanting to interrupt the enemy's attack when in reality that is incredibly unreliable and kind of short sighted.

My idea regarding how cutters are to be used involved using the weapon's inherent mobility to dodge attacks, circling around a single enemy DURING the combo while almost completely disregarding the flinch/final hit; definitely a "single target elimination" type of weapon in practice. An alternative method would be baiting an enemy's attack, positioning yourself properly and going to town with a full combo.
Here's the kicker though: very few enemies actually allow for this sort of prancing style (lumbers come to mind as one of the few), and the knockback on the combo hits is just frankly stupid LOL like it works well to keep you safe from attacks if you just do swings 1 and 2 then shield cancel and start again but EVEN AT point blank vs a zombie only the first hit has the shadow hit actually connect, and the damage is just too low to justify it.

SO MY SUGGESTIONS:::

1- DO SOMETHING WITH THE KNOCKBACK
-> Either eliminate it/make every hit identical to the first swing's knockback, which would make circling around enemies way easier and make the frankly really satisfying experience of circling around a lumber with a full combo possible on most enemies
-> OR INVERT THE MAIN SWING'S KNOCKBACK to actually pull enemies in: this is a bit more daring but it already sort of works that way with the charge attack, it would definitely introduce a lot of risk to using the weapon and would lean more into the "Bait an attack then go to town" playstyle, but even still a shield bump when it gets dangerous is still an option, plus it would make the weapon REALLY good for pulling in crowds of enemies even if it is at the user's risk. (Now thinking about it circling around enemies could still be possible with some skill even if the hits pulled enemies in, though it would take some getting used to I think)

2- BUFF THE DAMAGE
-> Split damage or otherwise, this is straightforward, though it would have to be introduced to both weapons (DVS and WHB) for fairness' sake, and then that begs the question of elemental cutter when but that's asking for too much I think (IF IT were to be introduced a shock/freeze one would be nice to take advantage of the knockback eliminating effects of those elements)

3- REWORK CHARGE ATTACK
-> I think it's been mentioned before but firstly make DVS' charge flinch like WHB, and second idk make it not have you stand there for an eternity; maybe make it 3 swings or as people have suggested make it one big swing with a bunch of shadow swings that follow afterwards; this would make it similar to brandishes in its safety and have a niche for rounding up enemies like a vortex bomb.

I feel like adding flinches to the 3rd hit or whatever might be a bit overkill and dumb down the weapon too much, but someone could sell me on it I'm not sure.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk this has been cutters' strongest soldier #makeFoVacutterthanksbye