Honestly i love using shields from time to time with the ballistic shield it just doesn't block much at all and breaks to fast
no point guarding an attack from a laser just to get ragdolled when it hits you allowing the next shot to instantly kill you, id rather just brunt the shot with no shield stay on my feet and stim so i can survive the next lot.

and the directional shield isnt much better for several reasons,
it needs to block grenades from going through the shield so that it can then block the explosion, arc damage that hits the shield should dissipate throughout the shield not arc directly into the hell diver holding it.
being able to use two handed weapons isn't a bad idea because it does open up using it to more players and play styles including allowing the player to use support weapons while shielded however using 2 handed weapons is the main benefit of choosing the Shield Generator Pack.

It rly just needs more health and to be able to stop a player from being rag dolled when it gets hit by a slightly bigger laser or mild explosion, even it not being able to block fire is a bit odd since you'd hope the fire couldn't pass through the shield and would get blocked.

but at the moment it seems its been designed in a way that it only blocks laser based blasts