I had the same sentiment when I found it for the first time back then
It's a terrible late game pickup, but if you get it very early it can easily win you the run. The wipes don't matter that much during the first few minutes as you don't lose a lot of xp.
And if you level it up enough to evolve it pretty quickly after the 10 minute mark, you're golden.
Yeah, that's something to be wary of. But there are certain unlocks to mitigate the increasing weapon/item pool.