I played a lot with Blood Knight DK. I like Vitality damage and especially melee type. Blood Knight set has very weak soldier side. This weapon is not bad in particular and yes it’s not ideal to have less than %100 conversion but sometimes this is the case. It’s not special to Blood Knight DK.
And your suggestions are a bit… extreme… Though yes set needs definitely more Aether>Vitality Conversion.
But I’ld like to see Bleeding support on this weapon. BK set has it, a lot of vitality items has it and most importantly Cadence has it. So why not add Bleeding damage to this weapon? And most see Counter Strike modifiers on the set is a joke but it can be utilized if you focus some bleed aswell and maybe better modifiers. Doubt it can be OP Vitality/Bleeding DK without proper RR.
There is already a weapon howl of the wendigo that hints you to a Bleeding Death Knight and as obvious choice use Blood Knight set. So why not expand this possibility into DW one? Blugrug’s Plague Edge also provides Bleeding damage but it has no mods so maybe it can have a Necrotic Edge/Zolhan’s Technique with Bleeding modifier.
Anyway who needs proof that if I know what I mean, here is my build.