But yes, I can see the lack of versitility problem clearly.

Yeah. I wouldn't buy one now because of that. OTOH, having it around, I've come up with enough uses for it that I'm not going to get rid of it.

maybe using my one-pound hand weights.

This is the sort of situation where I'd start considering duct-taping my hand weights to the ends of a broomstick. Because I am prone to dubious ideas like that.