Take a look at the specs. The corners are not right angles. While not large, the designed radius of the tang/blade junction is 1/32", more than enough radius to handle stresses for the KNIFE'S DESIGNED PURPOSE.
People need to quit denigrating the 1219C2/USN MK2 FIGHTING/UTILITY knife because it does not survive being pounded on like it was a splitting wedge or treat it like a pry bar. Look at the design name - FIGHTING/UTILITY. The name does NOT say FIGHTING/PRY BAR or FIGHTING/SPLITTING WEDGE.
Fighting knives are TYPICALLY light to be quick in hand-to-hand combat and sentry elimination. Utility knives are designed to perform general cutting tasks.
These knives were not intended to be or designed to be used as pry bars or wedges by the acceptance committee. Did they expected that they would be improperly used? You bet they did. After all, the acceptance committee were Marines. They knew what Marines would do - use them in whatever manner the needed to. If a knife broke doing something other than kill a human or cutting "normal" stuff, well, that's why they had over 3 MILLION of them made.
If someone uses a tool in a manner in which the tool was NOT DESIGNED to be used for and then the tool breaks, the break is NOT a result of a "design flaw", it is the result of exceeding the design limits.
If someone breaks a 1217 by batoning, wedging, prying or chiseling, too bad. Suck it up, buttercup and go buy another one. Just like the Marines and Navy did with the 1219C2/USN MK2 of WW2.
Oh, by the way.... Kabar DID improve on the design - heftier construction, stronger pommel construction, non-rotting Kraton handles, 3 sheath options.
2 models - one was the Kabar NextGen, model 1221. Canceled due to lackluster sales. No one wanted the "better" knife. The other is the Kabar D2 Extreme, model 1281. Still available. The NextGen in D2 steel. Not a fast seller, despite being "a better design with a really good not-1095 steel" that every one bitching about the 1219C2 design says they want.