I'm also not entirely happy with area of effect maneuvers, but there didn't seem to be another way to accomplish certain things.
You might be able to implement certain things as zone wide blocks, but then, if you did your big flash of light as effectively a zone wide veil, the first guy to get his sight back would let everyone see; which is not an ideal solution either.
In the power scales that most people seem to play in, making it the power of the maneuver (rather than the control) that is resisted might help keep this tactic in check, since it makes the maneuver easier to resist for everyone that you are hitting with it. Of course, you can still do maneuvers that attack weak skills so it's still not ideal.