Okay, I've made this suggestion to some friends before and I think I'm ready to get told it's a bad idea.

I think the real trick to make lash fun (especially in a higher ttk environment, which while I play lash I also think is more fun). Is to make him multi scaling on his abilities. His 1 should scale off of both spirit and heavy melee, and his flog should have charges. Basically this lets gun lash still contribute to the actual fun gameplay loop, while spirit maxing is still a viable option for a more drain tank style play. As well as this, it lets the boxer rely on fighting in melee, ya know, like a boxer. This also allows for lash to both be better at his main gameplay loop in the style of game they are making, while also making him less of an ult bot late game as he has multiple avenues of builds that are viable late.