You are not talking about how good IF is, you are talking about how good Thor is.
Also, 368 is kind of any unfair comparison point for typical users. Don’t max-champed 4*s have the best damage/AP efficiency in the game? They definitely do when boosted.
8ap for ~5k damage (plus the secondary effects) is just what I said, mediocre. It’s not bad, and not great. But double that efficiency via champ covers, and then add 5/3 of green ap for free every turn, and you can definitely do a ton of damage. You could also do a ton of damage using Thor to fuel a 370 4* Cage’s yellow.
Sure, and that’s good. But you need 24 green ap to cast black. And it’s not easy to generate that much without a battery like Thor. So there we are back to talking about how good Thor is, rather than IF. Cable can also do a ton of damage (often aoe damage) if you stuff him full of green ap.
IF is in the second tier of characters that hit hard enough to be useful damage dealers. But he lacks the self-synergy/to be truly top tier. Even with his ap generation, he isn’t that fast on his own. He needs 18 blue (with the power at 5 covers) just to generate enough green for a single cast, but he needs 24 green to make 12 black (only with green at 5 covers, and assuming you can meet the other contingencies). And if you have both green and blue at 5 covers, then black is weak. It’s just not a great engine to fuel himself on offense; it’s more of a useful tool to make him harder to deny on defense.
So for the last time on the subject; 4* iron fist is good, but not great. And he is also a good example of why we should expect 5* Carol to redefine the 5* meta, even if she is solid.
And with Kitty gone, opening any LT that could become a KP seems like a questionable idea at best.