It's interesting, I side-eyed the hammer/scalpel thing myself, because it didn't seem accurate to me either, but I mostly came at it from a Reese perspective, i.e. as soon as Harold said that, I had this montage of Reese crashing cars and driving huge trucks into things in my head and I just thought, my dear Harold, that's an interesting take on your husband you have there. :-D (Which is kind of fascinating if you want to go for a Watsonian explanation, because if I remember correctly, Harold says that during the time when Reese abandoned him, so there could be some real bias and pining in his assessment.) So because it didn't fit Reese, it was a given for me that it wasn't a particularly accurate take on Shaw either, but I like how you spelled it out here. But they had this whole Finch/Shaw mini-arc there for a while, where they didn't quite click at first and while I appreciated the idea in theory, especially given where they were coming from, I think that Shaw's characterization seemed a bit broad and oversimplified for a while, compared to her introductory episode.

equal emphasis on their shared versatility

This! They went a bit overboard in deriving comedic moments from differences and traits that weren't particularly accurate/too much of a caricature. I mean, it's always nice if people's skills compliment each other, and Reese's capacity for gentleness with people is something that is unique to him and that I've always cherished (and that, ironically enough, the show kind of forgot about in later seasons as well), but that says nothing about his methods in other situations. Although I think his hammer moments sometimes have a part in them that's just total recklessness, which I don't think is true for Shaw.