Having played a game with them and theorycrafted a little, I don't think the Hunters of Huanchi are weak as a faction necessarily- but they're probably the warcry-specific warband that's the worst if you're building them from the options you get in a single box. Standard blowpipe chameleons are terrible garbage that you basically never want to take because they can't deal damage and they're as fragile as wet paper, while the ability on the bolas being one of their big focus and their tiny bit of additional toughness means you'll always want at least a couple (unfortunate, given it's the opposite in AoS). I like the Terrawing for their speed and ability to lock down enemies, but you won't really be securing kills with them or anything, which is unfortunate because it means they get outclassed by ally options that're better for that purpose (like a ripper chief or a terradon equivalent if you're on a budget) and the hornblower guy kind of requires you to be taking terradons to be worth it in any capacity.
The leader is also maybe the worst one in all of Warcry for me, personally, because they're just an alpha version of the basic skins that gets a couple more wounds and maybe an extra attack (which means you absolutely never want to take the blowpipe version because it has a terrible profile, and the bolas version ensures you always have the bolas ability on hand). Even worse for my sensibilities, they barely look different to the basic chameleons and don't have a unique name, making them visually outclassed by like half the roster, GW clearly knows this because they didn't put the warband's leader front and center in any of the advertising and just kept showing off all the cooler one-offs you get instead.
Their saving grace, and the reason they don't suck as a warband, are Huanchi's Claws. They are absolutely nuts, throwing out two 8 range attacks that deal 2 damage with 4 damage crits AND have mid-range strength is pretty solid- plus they have extra toughness and wounds over the top of either basic troop option, with the addition of a fairly solid triple unique to them. All of that for 75 points when your basic blowpipe chameleons are 70. You want as many of these guys as possible, you want to frankenstein every model in your box to give it javelins and a cool headdress because they're so good you don't want chameleons that're anything besides them, unless you're aching for points to bring in allies from other factions. They are strong, they are cheap, they are absolutely the only thing holding the hunters together as a faction.