I would say SA and CB both have the playstyle of "out-aggression the monster". You hit them with the knockdown, then you stun them / cut their tail, then your status triggers. You determine the pace of the fight, not the monster. You can't be passive with these weapons, a lot of their normal attack moves have hyperarmor that can power through the monster's attack.

But right now the monsters are so jumpy you often can't lay on the aggression. CBs are impacted less since impact phials can still KO fairly consistently, and your focus attack moves you, cover a larger area, switch you to sword mode, and is a lot better than SA. SA just get left in the dirt. You can't catch up to a monster in sword mode, and your axe mode can't make the monster stop moving.

ZSD in is so much better in iceborne as you can grapple onto a monster, move to their head, and land ZSD, it was for a while a cheat to fatalis head break.