I don't particularly mind the lack of wolf like asthetics, but I do get your disapointment. the first time around, I barely even looked at the set and figured I was better off with my silver armor and frostner. On my second playthrough though, I figured I would challenge myself by avoiding every metal based armor, and figured I'd try the rippers out as well since I had the armor set. Turns out they're not bad! sure, its just the basic punching and kicking animation, but it feels like a completely new playstyle. Dodging and kicking for a stun to then punch enemies to death is pretty viable, and even though it's not the best stats wise, it is extremely fun. Sure, a leap not unlike the dagger would have been really cool looking, but I think it would make it less playable. In a sense, the kick is as good as your defence gets. It deals decent damage and stuns most enemies with one hit. A leap attack would allow for an easier first hit with plenty of damage, but probably wouldn't stagger as much, leaving you open for an attack, and with the relatively low armor rating of the fenris set, it wouldn't end well. what I do think needs to be reworked though is the availability of fist weapons past the mountains biom (I don't mind it being only available later on, it makes for a cooler progression in my opinion) and the recovery speed of the kick, which is so slow you can barely get one hit in by the time the mob recovers. I don't think the ckick itself needs to be faster since, when comparing with other secondary attacks, it is pretty fast, but it really is the recovery speed that gets annoying sometimes.

TLDR: Flesh rippers are great as they are, but we need more fist weapons and faster kick recovery.