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I believe this was answered by Morgan. The Swordmaster is intended to be a balanced Physical/Social combatant, and has the appropriate Defense buffs (+2/+2 @ 8th Circle). Other adepts that specialize in one of the 3 spheres (like the Warrior) get (+3/+1 @ 8th Circle) Defense buffs.

Each discipline gets total of +4 to Defences, Swordmaster is something between Trubadour and Warrior (is not specialized in one direction) thats why he gets +2/+2 and not +3/+1 like other Disciplines. You need to look at it as a whole not just Circle 8 bonus.

Bavarakar, your calculation is done wrong: the increase does not stack. So:

Air Sailor
2nd: adds +1 to Physical Defense
4th: adds +1 to Social Defense
6th: adds +2 to Physical Defense
8th: adds +3 to Physical Defense
Total at cercle 8: +4 to Defenses (+3 Physical, +1 Social)

Elementalist
2nd: adds +1 to Mystic Defense
4th: adds +1 to Physical Defense
6th: adds +2 to Mystic Defense
8th: adds +3 to Mystic Defense
Total at cercle 8: +4 to Defenses (+3 mystic, +1 physical)

Troubadour
2nd: adds +1 to Social Defense
4th: adds +1 to Mystic Defense
6th: adds +2 to Social Defense
8th: adds +3 to Social Defense
Total at cercle 8: +4 to Defenses (+3 Social, +1 mystic)

Swordmaster
2nd: adds +1 to Social Defense
4th: adds +1 to Physical Defense
6th: adds +2 to Social Defense
8th: adds +2 to Physical Defense
Total at cercle 8: +4 to Defenses (+2 Physical, +2 Social)

Yeah, but don't forget that in 4th edition, armor always count. They is no more "armor defeating blow" and at higher cercle, players tend to have more HP, better armor and magical item.

I have playtested a combat between two 6th cercle PC (warrior vs swordmaster) with freid76, and it was a really long combat. The swordmaster was able to hit most of the time, but did not do that much damage, and the warrior did massive damage, but wasn't able to hit that much.