BCB:
My alloy comment came from the merc racing web page which said "X7".
And you are more than right about the hole shot. I'm pretty sure that 28p prop would not get on plane in my boat if I had anything more than me and my son in the boat. We often have three of us in there (add a son-in-law). My fury 26 has no problem whatsoever and still runs 73-74 with all of us when it is cold and the water is not like glass. For a thousand bucks, thanks but no thanks. :)
If you go to the merc racing web page, you might get a chuckle, in that they talk about it being used on bass boats, excellent hole shot, etc. I can only speak for my 200 pro xs, but excellent hole shot was NOT in the discussion. You are right, it does look like the old cleaver drag props where the trailing edge is cut pretty square to the end of the hub, no rake at all beyond that point.
I'd bet that if you put one of these on a 21' ranger, you could put a thousand horse motor on the back and it would not get it up out of the water.
I'm reasonably convinced that the chopper style (and cleaver style) are not going to be so effective on today's boats. Too heavy. Three batteries in the rear, big gas tank, bloated motor weight compared to the 2.5 two strokes. But it was an interesting test.