OK, we're pretty much eye to eye. Yes the basic techniques are applicable against the average attack, but to study blade defense properly is the same problem as studying empty hand: to defend you need to know how to attack, and most people have neither the time nor the inclination to study blade use (it's not nice!) and you need skilled attackers to hone that skill. The other factor, of course, is the adrenaline rush that comes from a blade being waved at you, but learning to cope with the loss of fine motor skills is not something we train for. To be perfectly honest I'm not sure that most Aikido students would really want to, since it costs a certain innocence that might be better preserved. Not because, as some posters in the past have suggested, that all Aikidoka are wimps, but we are basically nice guys, not super Rambo ninja wannabes