Hand to Hand as a specialization definitely has deadly potential.

Without getting into the specialization's unique skills, the main advantage and disadvantage of being a hand spec, as stupidly obvious as it sounds, is that you fight with your hands.

For example:

Pro: Skills like disarm, entrap, hook, grapple, and strip can't knock your weapon out of your hands. Skills/spells/communes like poison, weaken, plague, crimson scourge, wither, boneshatter, kotegaeshi, and impale can't make you too weak to wield your weapon. You always have the "best weapon" for your spec; no worries about that part of selecting gear.

Con: On the other hand, you're stuck with your hands. You can't, for example, switch to a flaming weapon in order to capitalize on a felar enemy's vulnerability to fire (at least, not while using your specialization). You can't switch to an axe to land more strikes against an invoker opponent who doesn't learn how to fight with axes. (Again, at least not while using your spec.) You'll never have a rare weapon that heals you, poisons your enemy, inflicts bleeding wounds, and the like.

Hand might be a good choice for a newer player. Because you don't (and mostly can't) worry about all the strategy involved in choosing weapons for a fight, you might be more free to focus on learning other aspects of CF.