It's always better to keep the combos going since once you're in the momentum-flow, you'll get the piercing hit ever 2 shots. In fact, once you have a few combo attacks unlocked, almost every attack is a special attack after you've started momentum.
They definitely could be, lol. I tried to do way too many things in this jam and I think if I'd focused on fewer features I would have had time to polish and explain them better. Lessons learned for next time!