Most Edge Boosts and Edge Actions are of course situational and not super useful at all times. But you gain and use Edge quite rapidly in this edition so they don't really have to be....
Having said that, I do agree with you.
Blinding Strike I think should be more interesting if it applied one level of Blinded on a success (cost of this is not dealing any damage and spending 4 Edge before the test) and then apply a second level of Blinded if you also managed to reach the second Agility threshold (instead of normally increasing damage done with net hits).
Same with Sucker Punch. I think it should apply one level of Fatigued on a success (cost of this is not dealing any damage and spending 2 Edge before the test) and then apply a second level of Fatigued if you also managed to reach the second Willpower threshold (instead of normally increasing damage done with net hits).
I think that Fake Out should perhaps deal listed base damage on a success and then reduce the targets defense rating for one combat turn by one per hit (instead of increasing the damage with net hits and by spending 2 Edge before the test).
Hamstring I think should deal regular damage (increased by 1 per net hit as normal) and then, if the second Agility threshold is reached, add the Hobbled status effect on top of that (by spending 3 Edge before the test).
Same for Throat Strike I think should deal regular damage (increased by 1 per net hit as normal) and then, if the second Agility threshold is reached, add the Muted status effect on top of that (by spending 2 Edge before the test).
And for Thunder Palm I also think should deal regular damage (increased by 1 per net hit as normal) and then, if the second Willpower threshold is reached, add the Deafened status effect on top of that (by spending 2 Edge before the test).
Called Shot: Incapacitate have a different wording. There is no mentioning about trading all the damage for a status effect here. It seem perhaps as if this attack will deal regular damage (increased by 1 per net hit as normal) and then, if the second Reaction threshold is reached, add the Dazed status effect on top of that (by spending 5 Edge before the test). Dazed is really strong status effect when used against players or epic opponent that have a lot of edge and high ratings (but the action also cost 5 edge to use, so). But I think perhaps that all damage should be converted to Stun when using this action (no matter if the second threshold is reached or not). We are trying to incapacitate after all.
Knuckle Breaker also seem to have a different wording and perhaps seem to already deal regular damage (increased by 1 per net hit as normal), and on top of that it seem to apply one level of Disabled on a success then a second level of Disabled if also reaching the second Body threshold (by reducing the dice pool by 4 and spending 4 Edge before the test). This is fine I think :-)
Same with Pin. It also seem to deal regular damage (increased by 1 per net hit as normal), and on top of that (but in this case no matter if the attack is actually successful or not) it seem to automatically apply the Immobilized status if number of hits (not net hits) reach a threshold equal to defense rating of the target (for a cost of 3 edge). This is also fine I think :-)
And Entanglement seem to perhaps both apply Grapple as normal (whatever normal is when it comes to grapple, the intent behind grapple rules are not very easy to understand to be honest) and then, if the second Agility threshold is reached, add the Hobbled status effect on top of that.