I think your suggestion could be true only if Vasher himself didn't know the whole truth about Nightblood's origin. The fact that he thought the knowledge that was used to create Nightblood was too dangerous to be popularized, and I recall reading the knowledge in question being how to awaken steel, suggests there was nothing otherworldly about his creation. Additional question comes to mind immidiately - do we know the physical composure of a shardblade?
I assume the WoB that Nightblood is a shadblade of sorts was meant in more general sense: as in, both objects are swords that have great powers and minds thanks to investiture. You could say that their creations were arriving at the same place by two different roads - Nightblood was made by giving a sword an idea (well, a command) - basically, receiving additions to its cognitive aspect, and shardblades are the result of an idea (a spren) getting the ability to turn into a weapon - receiving additions to its physical aspect.
That being said, Nightblood's whole nature has always been bugging me, too. It feels like his mind and his command are too disconnected, considering his intent (or rather, command in this case?) is capable of literally shutting down his mind and completely overwriting it. You might be onto something here, although maybe not exactly what you suggest - perhaps the sapient mind was the result of an effect explained in another WoB - that all magic must be in posession of a sentient entity, and if not, it would gain a mind of its own. I assume that is why certain spren, as splinters, have intelligence in the cognitive realm, and perhaps removing so many breaths, which are essentially the spark of life on Nalthis, away from anything that was ever living, is what, as suggested, caused them to splinter from Endowment and acquire a mind of their own?