Most of the time, forsaken are better when distorted. You want to stack as many damage increases as possible, and the distortion is a 50% damage boost (for the 2 damage types associtated with that distortion).
The basic chosen from the first few loops make usable forsaken, that are helpfull for the first few loops, but stronger chosen make forsaken that are a lot better.
And you absolutely don't need hard working publicist/notoriouls publicist. They make your forsaken a lot stronger, but aren't necessary.
The damage ouput will also depend a lot on their disgrace value, and on how many different types of damage they do. (And what type. INJU damage is easier to stack than EXPO for example, due to how the modifiers work.)
EDIT: The most important choosen to turn into forsaken early tend to be the ones like "Up to +XX% victim HATE damage as Forsaken" (and the equivalent for the other damage types). You keep them at low disgrace (don't break dignity if possible), and then use them to break other choosen, who will then do more damage.
Math example: Let's say you distort a superior chosen (+50% damage) with Aversion (+50% HATE and INJU damage), and broke her MOR and CON with forsaken that increase the relevant damage type by 20%. You now have a forsaken dealing 270% damage in HATE and INJU, due to how multipliers stack (1.5*1.5*1.2), if you set her to deal those 2 damage types. And that's before the multiplier from training.