I really really like Harold Craigavon as a character and how he fits into the world, because he's doing a lot of stuff for the story, even on a ludonarrative level of his bossfight. While he shows off that casters can be overwhelmingly powerful, though that was already known, it establishes that they can be so nigh-unstoppable that forming an entire squad around and to just support them is a practical and effective approach.
Suffice to say, the Victorian Dukes are nothing if not ruthless and practical, so the Duke of Caster would not entertain Harold if he didn't deliver results. Soldiers only get old by surviving and winning, after all.
This isn't the first time we've seen this either. In the main story Faust and Frostnova are both leaders of squads that directly work with and utilize their leader's arts to great effect. Faust isn't possible to pin down or find cover from, because any one of his Phantom Crossbownmen could be him. Frostnova's storms leave foes vulnerable, or can work with her Yetis to freeze opponents more easily.
Similar to Harold in multiple ways, Frostnova dominates the battlefield in such a complete fashion that her squadmates invest in protecting themselves from the residual effects of her arts so that they can operate normally:
While only one of Frostnova's units benefit directly from the cold, the icecleavers that deal 250%/300% damage to frozen units, the Victorian general's army, thrive in Harold's snowstorms. With a Duke behind him and taking care of all of his equipment and expenditures, they get stronger in the cold. They were trained in it, and dominate it, and likely represent what Frostnova could have become if she had a few more years to sharpen her craft and squad cohesion.
To make a bit of a jump, recall how I described casters as being unstoppably powerful; now I want to bring your attention to the mighty Wendigo; the most powerful entities that existed on Terra. Regularly described as such.
Now lets look at one of my favorite scenes in the game, Kal'tsit's stand off with the Emperor's Blade at the end of A Walk in the Dust: (WD-8 Before:)
Kal'tsit directly compares the strength of Wendigos to veteran war Casters. They were deployed together to fight off Collapsals. Sami employed Snowpriests, also Casters of incredible strength. The only one we directly know of, Santalla, was fighting a one-woman guerilla war against the expansionist country of Ursus itself, depicted in The Black Forest Wills a Dream.
They can't find her, they can't stop her; they think that she's a spirit, not a caster, not a person. Because how could a person summon blizzards at will, who could roam and stalk in such hostile environments? They can't push the border anymore because of her alone. (In the Biting Cold:)
So when we come all the way back around to Harold; as a veteran caster with a proper catalyst and no oripathy (r.i.p. Frostnova), he has no physical reasons to hold back. His squad is designed around him, and can safely be in just the vicinity of his arts. His opponents are stuck desperately keeping their heat sources on, just so they can fight, just so they can hold their blades, only for Harold to precision strike them. If you manage to harm or hinder him, he can switch tactics and begins repeatedly nuking the entire battlefield. He, will be fine. His men, will be fine.
But you will not.
Harold's bossfight is one of my favorites, not just because it's engaging and tense, delightful and frantic: it flexes so much of the world and lore. The music pairs so well, the almost whimsical tones of the snow and ice giving way to the unrelenting wrath of a blizzard with malicious intent, the deep bass aligning with the truck sized icicles descending from the sky and crashing down. It shows off how the battlefield and militaries in the setting warp around casters.
What must it have looked like to have seen multiple Harolds, multiple veteran war casters all closer to their prime, working together to fight back extradimensionals? Each with no reason to limit themselves, no worry in harming the Wendigo frontline.
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As a parting note, you know what else is cool? Patriot, who presumably fought on one of those frontlines, then met Frostnova and Faust. When they showed an aptitude for arts, he tutored them to fight in the same way, as part of a purpose-built squad. They and their arts are powerful indeed, but he has seen firsthand how they are best leveraged.
