Actually, yes. Lightning strike isn't melee because it fills the entire arena- standing on the same screen as the boss wasn't even necessary. I mentioned before elsewhere that having single, massive damage strikes solves many of the problems with melee by making all the time spent dodging less of an issue. Dunno when that skill was added, but it looks like a good one. Though I'm guessing that just like with the dual strike example, it wasn't actually used for 99% of the time, and just swapped in to fight the boss. Unless it's got some proliferation nonsense that fills the entire screen. Or required a kings ransom to be viable at all.
If you want to gimp your own ass and play dark souls simulator in PoE, you have that option. Equip Heavy Strike and never look back. Just don't come crying afterwards that you can't deal with certain content. It was you who decided to limit yourself to auto-attack.
Except you can use the equivalent of heavy strike with a bow and be totally fucking fine. The point of wanting true melee to be viable is that actually needing to stand near enemies to hurt them makes the gameplay more interesting. Do you find minion builds where you don't need to cast a single thing after setting up fun? If you can understand why people find that boring, the same applies to all these skills that cover the entire screen. The difference is, GGG nerfed the ever loving shit out of minions (rightfully so) to balance that so there's a reason to play with other skills without 'gimping your own ass' as you put it.
Edit: I think people got the wrong idea from me posting a maven fight there- that was just the first video that wasn't half an hour long that came up when I typed in 'lightning strike POE.' Dealing X amount of on paper dps has obviously never been a problem for melee, and getting any skill to the point it can curb stomp a boss is meaningless without context. I'm sure someone has an endgame fucking bear trap video out there too, I don't think anyone is going to make the argument that bear trap is a totally viable skill or par with everything else.