I don't like this new system either. It is just too dull and too simplified for my tastes. No more saving throws, no more praying to the RNG gods, no more crowd control...
I can't tell if this was supposed to be sarcasm or not, but assuming you are serious...
I think it needs some tuning, but I liked it in principle. It's interesting especially as far as enemies can have disproportionate amounts of the two, which forces you to pick your targets in a more interesting way (i.e. "ok, that guy is armed like a tank, I'll focus spells on him, while picking the casters who just have magic armor with my melee guys").
Back to the topic, I agree that so far investing in these two skills definitely feels like wasting points, but I'm not sure merging them is the best solution.
Probably just buffing them and/or adding some secondary benefit would work better.
