That's exactly my sentiments. I can take a few tenths with a shear tool and still have a decent finish. It's tough to do that any other way than grinding. My spindle motor based tool post grinder works, but I'm not fond of using it. Perhaps that will come with time.
But the other use for a shear tool is getting a nice finish on materials that are otherwise hard to cut nicely.
I confess that I don't know what angle I use. I do it so often that I just have a feel for what it needs to look like. I'll measure one of mine next time I'm out at the shop. If I had to guess, I'd agree that it's around 10 degrees or so.
I also totally agree that it must be razor sharp! I usually grind, then fine grind, then stone, then polish with rouge on a leather strop wheel. It's a lot of work to get a nice edge, but the length of the edge makes it possible to use it for a very long time before it needs resharpening just my moving the tool up or down to get a fresh portion of the edge.
I forgot to mention earlier that it's the nature of a shear tool that it doesn't need to be on center cuz it's always on center! Vertical adjustment is only done to get a fresh edge.