Hou Ken is the culmination of ideas that sounds cool on paper but people don't give a shit about.
He starts off cool but he does not grow as a character and goes out of its way to be so unused he becomes nothing more than a simple tin foil and a crude obstacle for the protagonists to beat.
At this point Hou Ken is not even be thine name. It is just a thing. A simple, boring, and disappointing plot device.