system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Harry Potter] Is the Basilisk really as fearsome as everyone thinks?

So the Heir of Slytherin has released this massive, mythical and, apparently, viciously dangerous snake-monster to purge Hogwarts of muggle-borns and blood traitors and whatnot. And sure, it's big, it has magical death-eyes and large fangs (allegedly) filled with poison that can only be cured by Phoenix tears.

How come it's so useless then?

I mean, the basilisk itself slithers around claiming how it's going to rip and tear and kill and maim and whatnot... but there is very little tearing and ripping and killing. Sure, that one girl died, but everyone else was just a bit petrified for a while. And the girl who died wasn't even ripped or torn, she just died by looking into the death eyes when the snake comes out of the loo. Sounds more like an accident with the scary peepers than intentional murder.

I mean, all those petrified victims... why didn't the basilisk just kill them once petrified? Is it squeamish? Does it refuse to kill anything that's not alive? What's the point of the death-eyes then? If you're a huge-ass snake that only ever eats live victims, what's the point in having eyes that kill anything that looks at you?

It's not like the Heir of Slytherin or the snake itself **intended** to petrify the victims; clearly the victims all got lucky and did not look at the thing directly. Did the Heir of Slytherin go "Yo, Snake-eyes, go kill these peeps, but if you fuck it up and only petrify them then leave them be"? Or is the basilisk a bit dim, and thinks that petrified = dead, so it leaves them alone? Couldn't the Heir simply go "Yo Scaly, last mudblood you murdered didn't die so next time, after you give them the old death-stare, chomp on them a bit for good measure." You know, why wasn't there more ripping and tearing? With it's huge venomous fangs?

For a massive, legendary snake-monster that's been around for a few millennia, can get around through the pipes, can kill you by looking at you AND has huge venomous fangs to boot, it sure has a piss-poor record kill record, with only a single death attributed to it. Add to the fact that the thing dies if it hears the cry of a cockerel, and it begins to look like a relatively useless monster.
gpt
You may be missing the point of releasing the snake. It's going to do what Tom tells it to do and he doesn't want it biting people. Once dumbledore would have known it was a basilisk he would have killed it. 

He wanted to keep it hidden and get the school closed down. He didn't want his pet killed. It's possibly one of the rarest creatures in the magical world. 

The idea of no one knowing what it was or how it was getting around and staying hidden meant fear ran rampant with finger pointing ensuing. Much like with Hagrid.