I don't know what Psykers you've had in your games and how happy they've been with their lackluster powers that may eat their soul regardless of what they do,
I can only comment on the one psyker in my game, but his player has great fun with him despite having a lower PR and only a handful of powers. And while nobody enjoys a psychic phenomenon while it's happening, everyone in my group agrees that they can make an otherwise ordinary incident very memorable.
I'm not as familiar with DH1 psykers; can you give me an example of how they were better?