Bonecrusher Giant Spending to deal two direct damage is an awful rate, but Bonecrusher Giant highlights one way in which a Magic card can be great: flexibility
Since this ability triggers when your creatures die in any way, you can sacrifice your creatures to any sac outlet you may have, which in an aristocrats deck should be plenty
The argument for it was that besides being a nice touch, it would make rules more distinguishable from flavor
sometimes you can tap your Commander to pay for various costs and still gain that extra creature
Jund Shadow has plenty of good matchups, as several decks are weak to Tarmogoyf and/or Thoughtseize
Personally, I like being able to read my cards, but hey, thats what the translation journal is for