I see what you mean, I can kinda agree on thatI think it's not really needed. The realism is appreciated ( @Gahshunk ) but I don't really see the need to edit the move for mostly aesthetics.
The old lightning is gone but I'm sure you can make one pretty easily considering your an addon dev.
As far as the speeding up the cooldown, It wouldn't really make much sense. It's there for a reason, To balance it out and I think if you were to change that fire would become unbalanced.
Just about you saying I could do it myself, I have no idea how lightning was coded