The attack cooldown when hitting a block is actually doubled (unless the block is broken), but I definitely agree that the attack cooldowns are a bit off, unfortunately I didn't have a P2 to playtest this with so I couldn't get the balance exactly right.
The attack and block is registered in the update method yes, the game has a set time that you have to hold the key before it triggers a block, if it's released before then, it triggers a hit.
Thanks for the feedback, totally agree!