IDK what that is supposed to imply. Since the Seanchan tend to be more on the ball about stuff than other cultures, are you suggesting they make systematic use of it, as they do with so many other oddities they encounter, even over the course of the series, from forkroot to Min?
Just that the fact that they might be enslaving two sapient races, particularly two they can't actually communicate with likely wouldn't phase them much.
A fireball is maintained by a weave. While lightning is simply made and directed.
The fact that balefire disperses after passing the edge would mean that it needs the weave to continue, much as fire would. But... Rather little the OP does is of the OP. The closest it really gets to that is direct effects of the weave. Not the fire itself, but the initial ignition.
So really, the real question is whether or not the balefire is simply the effect of the weave, or a thing made and maintained by the weave.
I'd lean towards it being a thing, but not sure the text is evidence enough.
Going back to fireballs and lightning... Being untouchable to weaves isn't THAT good a thing to be. Useful as a surprise to have up you sleeve, but it only really protects you from weave like fireballs or flows of air which involve the weave actually touching the target, and even then... Wouldn't be all that hard for a channeler to simply cook the thing in the center of flows of fire, they simply have to avoid touching it with the threads, or just use Deathgates. Unless it touched it on the outside of the gate, the loss of weave would just cause the gateway to close. Or just use lightning. Lots of lightning. One of the favored battle weaves of channelers, and it's immunity to the OP wouldn't mean anything, just ask Mat. Hell, just take a page out of BS's book and forget the hardened air in favor of just plain old wind. Throw the thing around like a rag doll with no need for the weaves to actually touch it.
Don't get me wrong, the things do work as assassins. It's just that they were painted as these nigh unkillable beast, that even the Forsaken had big issues with handling... When we have SEEN that the Forsaken do know how to counter people with ter'angreal that do much the same thing.
Pull an Androl and open gateways from volcanoes high above the city and let the lava pour on in, or from the bottom of the ocean and drown the place. The Guardian may stop weaves, but that can and has been worked around by the more clever channelers.
Gholam aren't that much different, although they don't seem to actually die at all. The one Mat and Sumeko dealt with went right in through a gateway without dying and it's possible if someone wanted to find it they theoretically could by opening another gateway. Compared to all the other Shadowspawn the Gholam was pretty formidable. Although like all the other shadowspawn they became less impressive over time. Remember when a handful of Trollocs and ONE Fade were trouble for Moiraine and Lan? They even thought "only the weakest AS" would have trouble with a Fade which mean Daigian might not be able to manage a single Fade, which I think is fairly obviously not true. A single weak AS could manage to kill a fair number of Halfmen before being overcome. But a gholam? It would almost certainly kill any channeler without the strength to create a gateway or the wits to figure out a plan pretty damn quick.
