If I am not completely wrong, a build that isn't just tryharding for maximum damage would have around double the base damage of a weapon with armor and accessory bonuses.
If I am wrong, someone can correct me.
If you play a pure summoner, and focus only on the 5 summoner trinkets and wings+Insignia, your weapons are still somewhat over base damage. So strong weapons are still strong + you have your 11 summons on top of it.
Whips are just a gimmick. Your main source of damage are summons. As you've stated it. You are free to back them up with any weapon or focus entirely on dodging.
But no. People use a gimmick, die because they use a bad weapon and then complain that the weapon is bad.
I played a bit of summoner in 1.3. Never touched expert mode. 1.4 came in and I did a master playthrough with mainly a summoner. Never ever touched a single whip in my life.
See the summoner as one of the strongest "classes" if you don't count the broken-
stuff like Last Prism, Stealth S.D.M.G. and Zenith.