I could see lots of strange mixup situations from that. Imagine being in the corner with Litchi staff bearing down on you, and you counter it. But Litchi is also there, maybe getting ready to throw in an overhead or a throw in between the next staff hit. If you don't counter her moves, you are forced to block, but if you do try to counter you might screw up the timing and get hit. On the other hand, you could still hit her if you counter her own physical attacks rather than the staff, if you manage to do it successfully.