For the cooldown version, i understand that a huge cleave could use knockdown for CC and flavor reasons, but for the baseline spam version, it really reminds me the times of my first Diablo 2 Paladin with a Fear causing weapon that made me chase monsters all the time.
It is of course not as bad but still i think removing the knockdown on base skill could be a big quality of life change for the skill.
I’m using spam version of Blade Arc and completely forgot it even has knockdown. I’m not really chasing any monsters. Don’t know where you see a problem.