It's _still_ very good. It's a shame... there isn't even a _score_ for a swordplay skill, really.
I think it's possible to build a relatively mean 1-h defensive finesse fighter, even without ToB, but it requires utilizing lots and lots of trickery and multiclassing and... you know, the usual.
And even then, the result is kind of mediocre.
Hmm. Let's start with Fighter 20:
Dodge, Combat Expertise, Weapon Finesse;
Combat Reflexes, Robilar's Gambit, Defensive Sweep, Melee Evasion.
Einhander, Combat Focus, Combat Vigor, Combat Defense.
At level 16, Overpowering attack ACF.
You have dodge bonus to AC of +7, can use opposed attack roll for AC, and deal double damage on every hit via Robilar or Defensive Sweep.
Weapon Focus, GWF, specializations, mastery for a flat +6 to damage, +4 to hit, even without any strength bonus.
Since there's Dodge, Mobility would open up Dread Commando, so we get to negate ACP.
There's still no benefit in fighting in less than full armor, though.
with Scoundrel, a Swashbuckler-dip + Daring Warrior probably helps a bit, especially with Deadly Defense (+9 dodge AC, too).
Mythic Exemplar 1 (sunyatra) would increase crit range to 14-20 with keen or improved critical.
That's about as far as I get off the top of my head... I also notice that fighters actually don't get enough feats, when splatbooks are open. If we could fit cleave, various acrobatic feats, some luck feats and whatnot into the build, it'd actually start looking like a finesse fighter. Ah well, I have a quick and dirty fix ready for that....