When does going champion or gladiator make sense for a cyclone-impale based league starter?

It seems like duelists are a wonderful class because you have what I'd consider 3 archetypes...A gladiator who is generally tanky at the expense of less damage, a champion who is a little bit more even, and a Slayer as the ultimate killer whos only defense really comes from leaching life.

So I ask this:
Assuming impale isnt changed, melee isnt changed, cyclone, etc arent changed.....Is one ascendancy the clear winner in any given meta?

With Gladiator you can go max block facebreaker which costs very little I assume at league start, and you can grow bit by bit. Lions Eye Remorse becomes Surrender. A rare belt becomes ryslatha. A shitty helm becomes Abyssus. Your two res+life rings become Circle of Iron Guilt for 10-20ex. All this means your character can grow from a 5c item to a 20-30 ex build really fast. And with every upgrade, you become more and more tankier with modest damage.

With Champ, you can get a cheap terminus est, transition that to a 6L. A terminus alone apparently can clear all content, according to DonTheCrown. From there, you can move to starforge, and then maybe move to paradoxica/saviour or something. I'd imagine you'd do far more damage than Glad at the expense of maybe dying more often.

So, when it comes down to 3.11 and assuming there's no overhaul, what makes the most sense? Champion *can* be a little tanky due to fortify and impale offers huge damage, yet facebreaker gladiator can be pretty damn tanky with more than respectable damage if you farm up for Circle of Guilt rings, and such.

But what am I missing? Is there a startup factor that I dont see when comparing glad to champion? Maybe champion needs 100c of gear to function and get to t16s comfortably, and maybe gladiator needs more due to the lack of damage from ascendancy? Maybe terminus est are more available than a good facebreaker in the early day(s) of league? Maybe with 0c invested and not twink-leveling your character, champion feels better?

The one thing I learned this league is that dying feels terrible. Glass cannon builds feel terrible, especially ones that require you to get into melee range. So if facebreaker Champion can reach like 80% of the tankiness a Gladiator can while doing 2-3x the damage, or if Terminus Est champion facerolls all content while maybe being even more squishier, is it better?

Convince me Champion is better than Gladiator for league starting and league ending. I am sold on not dying, so naturally I lean towards Gladiator.

Great question, I couldn't have asked it in a better way than yours. I also share the same doubts and would really appreciate someone with knowledge could answer it. :)