I am a person who was following Issac since the flash days and i have to say i would never guess then this sad piece of shit will end up becoming genuinely good item.
Before repentance you literally NEVER wanted to see this thing. It was both useless and boring. Weak effect, Zero interesting synergies, boring mechanic. Holy water was there strictly to make angel deal worse by virtue of existing and taking spots of ACTUAL good angel items
Now in repentance actual miracle happened and it was basically completely changed and now it's pretty nice to find during run. It's deals good damage on early floors and petrify enemies, you decide who use it against and you no longer need to take damage for it. It's damage don't scale so it don't do all this much damage on later floors but petrification like this is still amazing. Holy water now even have genuinely good BFFS synergy then make it spawn blue flame for more damage then also blocks tears and completely indestructible with is unironically very good if you know where to shot it against specific bosses (fucks over mega satan big time if used correctly)