It's not just a slightly better Warhammer. It pairs better with a scythe than a dwh does. If your main weapon is 2h like scythe then you can drop the defender needed for dwh and take the 2h elder. This gives you an extra inventory space, which is pretty huge. Oh and it is better too in accuracy and def reduction, so there's that.
The pirates hook makes sense because your getting xp tickets and shop tickets separately at brimhaven agility. This means people are now getting the normal xp(and more) plus the gp rewards the shop offers rather than chosing between the 2
The crazy inflation and bot-friendly gold farming methods are what killed a lot of my drive to play after picking up the game again about a month ago. Like, seriously, Jagex needs to get a grip on things. I'm half-convinced they don't mind all the botting problems.