It's really the whole package that makes it work. A normal hammerhead using typical guns with AAF is nothing to be really scared of. A normal hammerhead using ACs is also no big deal, it's simply too slow to get up close and walk away unscathed. It NEEDS the safety overrides, it NEEDS the assault chainguns, and it NEEDS the accelerated ammo feeder all working together to really show off. A lot of things are adding together into this. You start with a brawly ship, give it sanic speed, load it up with brawly guns, supercharge those guns, and it all combos into a lethal package. It doesn't work nearly as well if any single piece is missing.
I would like to see a few more hammerheads actually in action though. Just because it's a beast in player hands doesn't mean the AI can make full use of it. The only place I've seem them really shine is against domain drones, at least in vanilla. Using ordinary vanilla settings, I have no problem using 3 SO hammerheads (with officers) to mop up any domain probe fleet without issue. They also work great towards the end of a grueling battle as a high speed cavalry to mop up. Personally I don't use them much in pure line vs line battles.