absolutly, my aoe holds are brillaint for what i need them for, me being an ice dominator i use ice slick and single hold/immob stray mobs, and only use aoe hold once the ice slick has ran out and/or if another group has been pulled
Now its slotted I dont have much of a problem, its just remembering to hit Power Boost first really, I'd like it to recharge faster and last as long, but there's only room for 6 slots.
Ice slick is helpfull for filling the gap between holds
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
Couldn't agree more - once the holds are slotted, that's where the fun begins.
Popping an +ACC inspiration helps too if your're not sure if your hold's gonna hit.
I don't think corrupters "need" us when using their nuke, but I would say that because we're a support AT, we tend to support damage dealing ATs very, very nicely.
@Under Control
You saying we're not damage dealers? Bah, I support myself while I'm in the middle of the mellee.
I do see your point though, as long as I feel my control powers are making everyone's life easier I am happy, and if I'm also hitting people with a big bit of ice I'm evern happier
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
Speaking as a grav/energy I would say no, the AoE hold - and you effectively only get one with a 4 minute recharge - is not enough. Then again, grav isn't exactly known for being the most controllerish set, in fact it's known to be the least.
Still, 6 slotted you will usually only have 2 recharge SOs in it, you need 2 accs and 2 hold durations just to make up the difference between our pre-nerfed dominator version and the controller version (which lasts 50% longer). That means you can use it every 2 and a half minutes, give or take. You can shave that down to a bit over one and a half minute with hasten, which I'm getting JUST to make Gravity Distortion Field more useful - which really should tell you something if I'm getting hasten explicitly for one power. I literally need it for nothing else.
And then you have a 32 second hold. Woopee, it's just as good as the base for a controller. Of course, it is useful, there's no denying that, but take into account:
1. Early on you'll be using this once every 2 fights. And I mean bigass whopping fights with big groups where not everyone is the optimum level to be fighting what they are. So if you're out of luck, make that 3 or 4.
2. It's 20 seconds. That really doesn't cut the mustard, and early on you won't have the slots to spare to make this power better. Even if you did, you're wasting the slots if you're pre-hasten, because recharges only go so far. In fact, just don't bother to slot for recharge til post hasten. It's just not GOOD enough, and you can't MAKE it good enough til you have hasten and can 6 slot it acc/acc/hold/hold/recharge/recharge.
3. You need stamina more than you need hasten with a grav/energy, as a rule. At least, that's IMHO. Grav has some endurance heavy powers, and energy doesn't help with it's near constant cycle. Don't expect to really rely on gravity distortion field in any way until late 20s, around the time you hit 30 it'll start getting good, is my guess right about now.
Basically, there's a lot a grav/energy can do but AoE holds aren't it until later in the game. Gravity Distortion Field pre-nerfed for dominator flavor doesn't cut the mustard, it's a nice thing to use with power boost if available (no, in the real world it ISN'T always available when you need it, deal). Add domination and you can turn a very hard fight into a relatively easy one.
But (sad) fact is... Gravity Distortion Field won't cut it for those with controlly urges among us, at least not til lategame and then it's still inferiorish. It takes too long to recharge to really rely on and hasten is almost inescapable for someone who wants to use it more often than "sometimes", it doesn't last long enough under most conditions, it doesn't have another AoE you can cycle it with: crushing field is rarely that useful, and basically you need to be relatively high level for it to really shine in any way.
I'm not griping - don't get me wrong - I love my grav/energy dominator, but we're probably less controllerish than some corruptors. Our saving grace is gravity distortion - the single hold - and the fact we get power boost and domination. The single hold counts for a lot, we can keep those pesky mobs like heavy hitting bosses, mezzers, rezzing lts, etc out of the rest of the group's hair while they mop up the rest. Don't underestimate that coupled with some reasonable blasting potential.
The good part is that since Gravity Distortion Field doesn't cut it as such poor neglected Dimension Shift gets more use. Provided you find a place for it early on, instead of getting it late game at about the same time that GDF gets useful like me. But still, that could be a reasonably-ish combo, provided my teammates don't kill me for constantly blocking out things they were attacking.
EDIT: I just realized I totally didn't answer the actual question. Can I keep a corruptor safe from an alphastrike? Hell yes. Can I do so on a regular basis? Not really, not yet.
Sorry 'bout that.
But I can keep that Meat Doctor busy so he won't resurrect those mobs you kill. 
Do you guys think your aoe holds are good enough? I have noticed that Corruptors nukes really need an aoe hold. These powers were designed with Controllers in mind, are Dominators up to the job?