Yes, removing permanent durability penalty on repair would be a step up... but considering the rest of the ladder is still broken, just the first step fixed, I still call useless.
Of course lockpicking faces the same due to spells being free of any penalties removing locked objects out of the way.
I can't say I noticed the weapon abilities yet, but I didn't really invest in them. Mage schools and way of the warrior are definitely the primary places where one needs to spend skillpoints.
If durability is even lower (not that I mind that) repair would be *even* more useless since you get way more time to find a proper 'free' replacement.
