One of the core reason for 'physical' being to powerful still it the fact, that they removed physical resistances. Therefore you have only check for armor if chosing a target for physical attack. I already made my own suggestions to make different kinds of weapons more distinct from each other. Though I stopped expecting any kind of real changes long time ago. Therefore I'm not really disappointed about the DE, because I already expected it to be disappointing in the for me important sections.
Regarding weapons skills, yes as far as I remember, they were underwhelming, only the shield skill got used by us frequently, and that is technically not a weapon.
