I can see where you're coming form, and it all makes sense to me. Looking at it this way summons themself do seem to be in a good spot, what seems to be more of the issue is that 40 Faith is extremely hard to come by whereas your character can start with the spell points needed to cast a summon spell, and by the time you have it; summoning an Orc Champion isn't as useful as it should be.
Maybe this is more of an issue with Faith gain?