Force balls are more important than the dash for sure, but dash is far from garbage. 6f escape move that moves half screen and is only -15 on block(which is great compared to most other mobility tools)? I have no complaints.
Except that dash needs a command grab.
OMG am I really about to have this conversation again?! GAAAAAAAH. You know what fine I will do it again.
1) Dash being "only -15 on block" means that it can be punished by every character in the game except maybe Sheeva, and every time you use it to escape pressure you are gambling your life bar.
2) Ex dash doesn't help this situation any at all since literally everyone in the game can interrupt it and make us waste a bar to try and gain advantage only to be unsuccessful.
3) Elbow dash is not always 6 frames. Depending on your spacing it can have up to 12 frames of startup.
4) Even if elbow dash hits you don't have any real solid setups off of it, and you only do 11%, with ex you can get 23% but then you lose a forceball setup.
A lot of people just think "Oh it's six frames though just derp it out". This isn't the case because elbow dash is only 6 frames from point blank range. It's best usage is for frame traps when space correctly with forceballs on screen and whiff punishing. If you want to throw out a forceball and just catch the opponent with a dash when he is trying to hit buttons it's usually an ok option, but other than that it is just a gamble, and against most tournament viable characters it's not a risk I like to take, but a lot of times I pretty much just have to do it.
