Was Grant's Axe an Upgrade?

The state machine for Grant's dagger is nearly identical as the state machine for Grant's axe. They both even check if Grant is attacking from a wall or from a ceiling. The problem with this is you can't attack with an axe while hanging from a wall or ceiling. It's hard-coded as such. Regardless of what buttons you hold, as soon as you press B, it attacks with a dagger. 

Why does Grant's axe code check if you are attacking from a wall or ceiling? Well, what happens if you trick the game into thinking Grant is using an axe from the wall? Since Grant needs to attack behind him when on a wall, it will toss the axe as normal, but behind Grant. What if you trick it into thinking Grant is on the ceiling? He will literally just drop the axe, at which point gravity takes over.

All of this is handled by a database of offsets and speeds for both the axe and the dagger. In other words, the manually coded offsets and speeds for the axe being thrown from the wall or ceiling. Perhaps they scrapped the mechanic because you would be forced to throw an axe from the ceiling, or maybe they didn't like how it felt to throw an axe from the wall.

Or maybe - just a hunch - maybe the axe was meant to be a replacement for the dagger, rather than a supplemental subweapon. Picking up the axe would replace Grant's dagger completely. This idea could have been scrapped due to how awkward having only an arched attack may have been.