At higher levels, many pallies do have their blunt skill capped or near to it, in case they manage to get a stave of shielding or darkmetal water sprinkler. This just adds another high level replacement for blunt wielding pallies, damm good one too.
I have mine maxed, and i tell you what, i would love to get ahold of one of these.. coupled with a SBS or SotGD, this would make a nasty combo.. and the AC bouns for shields makes life so much eiser. Plus, you get to have a mace, a fresh look for pallies, since you do not see many with a shield out, much less with a mace and shiled... i wonder how often you would get confused for a cleric??