I've personally found the punches to have some use - you can throw them out without changing your movement, and a staggered or stunned enemy can't trigger the game over - but yeah, they're not very useful. They do have knockback, though I guess if it wasn't noticeable while playing I probably need to make it stronger.
You're completely right about the orb; the plan is for it to move around while you try to keep it and yourself safe from the enemies.
I'm probably not gonna change the quick attack just yet - in my head they're gonna be situationally preferable to heavy attacks due to stuff that hasn't yet been implemented. Hopefully they'll find their niche once I have enemies actually trying to hit you back. While it's a bit beyond my design horizon, my current thinking is that ranged combat will take the shape of using enemy ragdolls to stun other enemies, or throwing weapons to do real damage.
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to try it out!