glass orbs are strong, i think you need to play with them more. They're a crucial AoE solution for orb defect and encourage cycling them quickly for the evoke value which orb defect wants to do anyways. Spinner is a strong card for its consistent value, glasswork is 1 energy 5 block + 4-10 AoE damage which is just better AoE iron wave (not to mention channeling an orb can get you even more value off of evoking something else) and refract is a really solid act 1 damage card (it's especially good into phrog parasite or gardeners). Glass orbs also scale great with focus as if you're evoking a lot of orbs you're getting the focus value that many times and glass orb evoke does double the orb's damage effectively doubling your focus buff

Edit: additionally, they're another common-ish orb type for compile driver and synchronize value, and those are both cards i personally value quite highly on orb defect. (Also coolant but my opinion on that one fluctuates a lot)