Weapon and armor degrading exist for reasons.

They are good in open world and especialy open ended game slik eMMORPGs or games like the new zelda where everyone ahted it.
its not a popular mechanic in those games either, but it works asa money and ressource sink.

Ideally it creates a world wehre rare things remain a rare commodity.

in a single player RPG with a finite story, these elements are mostly a nuisance