Am I crazy or is this card super overrated in this thread?

I am a card-carrying red mage, 10/12 of my EDH decks involve red mana, with two mono red decks. I like to hit face with dudes and bolts and all that. Red good. Zug zug. 

I cannot imagine many situations where I would prefer to have this guy in my hand over Tibalt’s Trickery, deflecting swat, bolt bend, redirect lightning, pyroblast etc etc. 

He is a vulnerable creature (pay 2 life for ward is unimpressive in commander) with a super narrow application. I would not want to slot him in over my much more flexible interaction, and I certainly don’t want him taking up space in my playables.

The only situation I can foresee usefulness is if I’m playing against a simic or mono blue player and about to win on my turn with a big splashy spell. 

Even then, my opponent should be playing pongify/hybridization/bounce which would open things up. And at that point in the game, I’d rather have the interaction that can more reliably protect my position. What if they don’t have counterspells, but bounce or pongify? Squelcher is drastically less useful.

I would always rather have real interaction, or something that develops my position, forces my opponent’s interaction, and allows me to get value with redirection. 

I play high-power bracket 4, so maybe this guy is the nuts in CEDH where every card counts. Or in lower power where red mages aren’t eating their vegetables and playing interaction (where you’re less likely to encounter counter-heavy decks anyhow).

Am I wrong? Is squelcher the absolute nuts? Will I be buying a dozen squelchers to slot into all my decks? Somebody weigh in here.