A redundant comment on any Cannoli opinion, but appreciated nonetheless.
Ah, but he was not accustomed to using such quanities of the Power. It would not be like using a sa' angreal, either, as there are allusions in the text to safety mechanisms that prevent the user from overdrawing or harming himself. The Eye was obviously an expansion of the Well ter'angreal principle on an unprecedented scale. Aginor was no more used to handling that much of the power than an SUV driver is accustomed to the handling characteristics of a tractor trailer or a bus. In a way, Rand might have had a slight advantage in that confrontation, in that he came to it with no preconceptions or experientially imposed limitations.
I never believed in that strongest/fittest crap anyway. It struck me as a rationalization of the irrational counter-productive infighting that characterizes the Shadow (not that such behavior is unrealistic, considering the methods of recruitment & motivations for joining the cause), that either the Forsaken used to justify their actions, or that the Dark One told them just to mess with them. The Dark One let them fight amongst themselves because it confirmed his perception of appropriate behavior and the reality of human nature, or because he found it funny or something. For all practical purposes, in the AoL, there were always more where the dead Chosen came from. In contemporary times, the number of people with their knowledge, abilities, and advanced levels of depravity are strictly limited, so he's going to bring back Aginor & co no matter how unsuccessful their performance. He wants them in play for some other purpose, because his power is sufficient to win on his own. Obivously he gets something out of their sycophancy, even if only emotional or intellectual gratification, or why else would he go out of his way to reward such behavior over more successful habits and practices?

In a way, you could almost attribute his attitude towards his followers as a kind of sentimentality. "I like using this one, I've had it a long time, and I know how it works."

Since they murder their members on the off chance said members might make them look human & fallible some day, it's to be expected.
And maybe a bigger part of those earlier versions, especially if the original conception was a trilogy. That would have given the Eye a proportionate importance in WoT to the Death Star in Star Wars. Speaking in this vein, I wonder if by not being used for its original purpose, RJ was really speaking about the original role he had intended it to play in his story, rather than the purpose for which the AoLAS created it.