It deals almost negative damage and makes your next 2 single-target abilities hit 4 extra targets at 50% damage.
Fel Cleave is literally just an AOE Chaos Strike though. It is, for all intents and purposes, just a Chaos Strike with Chaos Cleave baked in and no fury refund. Replacing Chaos Strike with Fel Cleave in AOE situations isn’t going to “feel” better because if it refunds fury, then it’s just a better Chaos Strike, and it it doesn’t then it’s just a worse version. Having a net neutral ability that already has history with the class, like Throw Glaive and Fel Rush, augment your Chaos Strike to cleave would ultimately accomplish the same thing but feel better since you’d have the possibility for Chaos Strike refunds.
If you’re “darting” around then you won’t always be melee. That’s where Chaos Bolt (from the Illidan novel) and Metamorphosis making your autos ranged in WC3 came in. Except we got Eye Beam instead, which is fine, but the idea that we’re only melee isn’t entirely true.
And a better question is, do players not like Throw Glaive because it doesn’t fit the fantasy or because it serves no purpose? Bloodlet was generally a neutral talent, as you were either for or against its use and I remember most of the the toward it was due to Momentum and not it directly. Additionally, I’ve seen a lot of excitement for the “throw 5 boosted glaives” legendary, and while that’d be problematic with Throw Glaive allowing Chaos Strike to cleave, that comes back to the core vs. borrowed argument and is ultimately a non-factor.
I think the Havoc community is more open to using Throw Glaive in specific cases than you think. And honestly, trading a single target spammable button for an AOE version isn’t really thoughtful nor engaging when 2/3 of our core (Chaos Strike, Eye Beam, Blade Dance) are single target cleavers. Outlaw and Fury have to press an extra button to cleave; us having to press Throw Glaive to let Chaos Strike cleave is the exact same, as it’s a starter like Fury’s Whirlwind or Outlaw’s Blade Flurry.