I guess the idea is that by using the palm of your hands facing the direction you want to push air backwards, you'll get more force (as opposed to using say, the back of your hand). You can then do all sorts of creative things like jumping, ducking down, leaping, dodging & running circles around your enemy.
Also by using two hands, pulling from front to back in a circular motion, it can give you a huge force and allows you to cover lots of ground or manoeuvre quickly.
Interesting point on the thumb-stick control aspect. I'll keep this in mind but would rather the game centred around the movement as opposed to the combat.
Thanks for the feedback! Really appreciate that you tried it out :)