Regarding the Broadsaber; I have no issue with the way it looks or it's conceptual design, in fact, as someone who has attempted to learn lightsaber fighting in real life, I think the lack of any hand protection on a normal lightsaber is a huge weakness of the weapon. It makes a lot of otherwise very effective defensive techniques totally impossible, and cripples the defensive abilities of the weapon.
No, my issue is that having the hand guards be miniature sabers is dangerous and makes no sense. In the course a sword fight, you're going to have to maneuver the hilt of your sword quite a bit, and it's very easy for you to inadvertently touch the hand guard. In normal circumstances, you won't even notice, but with this weapon, simply performing a flourish can result in you slicing off your own hand.
This was not necessary; there exists metal in the Star Wars universe that is invulnerable to lightsaber blades, just make the handguard out of Cortosis or Phrik alloy. Hell, Darth Sidious himself constructed his lightsaber from Phrik alloy. Had this new weapon been altered in this small way, I would have considered it a superior piece of craftsmanship to the original saber.