Unless you're facing ressers, it's not too hard to cause severe damage due to focus (which was used in the example). Win the duel by at least 1, don't flip black joker, and cheat in a severe card. While he has other things he'd rather do with his AP, considering only melee effectiveness, against something hard to wound Ramos is better off focusing twice to cause get severe damage rather than plinking away 1 damage per attack (use magnetism to get within 1" range if you don't start in it).
Ideally, Ramos sits back boosting his crew, raising spiders, and zapping stuff with electrical fire. If things go wrong and your opponent closes in on him, his clockwork fist can turn out to be a nasty surprise and a pretty good get out of jail free card.