I think he's honestly significantly better when you don't put your utility right up at the choke, given how loud they are. I feel like leaving your snare and interceptor a bit back (think bind back sites, for example), where they're significantly harder to break, is a lot more useful, as they can't flush you out of the site, and makes it easier for your team to retake, given how much less map control they have. You probably always need an additional sentinel (like vyse) to actually hold the site, but you could always do like a 4-1 setup where you leave your util with the other sentinel, then rotate quickly with double tps if they hit that site. He by himself isn't super good, but I can imagine he's extremely good at protecting your team and synergizing with them.
But yeah, as you said, he's probably on the weaker side, likely also because everybody's just playing Jett Reyna Clove.