Charger skis suck at low speeds for me also. Either too much work or too little fun.The terms are not totally useless.
Life is full of compromises, and sliding scales.
Speaking as a light skier (140 lbs currently, and for most of my skiing life), who used to have freakishly strong legs, but now has normal-strength legs, I cannot (and never could) make a "power" ski or a "charger" ski function well at slow speeds; I need (and needed) a "finesse" ski for that. If you weigh 220 lbs, you won't quite need as much of a "finesse" ski to make it work well at slow speeds. On the other hand, even as a light skier, "finesse" skis just don't cut it at high speeds; there is no way to make a "finesse" ski work well at high speeds and the forces that come with high speeds, even for a 140 lb skier. As an engineer, I reason that the speed and the performance limits on that finesse ski would be even lower for a heavier skier.
If you have a particular purpose/performance in mind, the terms finesse/power can be useful in making up your mind what ski to use for that.
I personally think the finesse vs power slider thing in a ski review isnt helpful. The written description is much more helpful in communicating what the ski is all about.
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