Beaten by the sharpshooter+crossbow expertise combo in a real game or for melee polearm mastery+ great weapon master. An archer can get away with using sharpshooter easier than a elee PC who needs someone else in the party to offset the -5 to hit part and that means someone who can cast bless or provide advantage which normally means Faerie Fire, Greater Invisibility, Gold Person, Foresight, an Avenging Paladin, or someone using the Shield Master Feat to knock NPCs prone.
The Barbarian is also one of the weaker classes, melee overall is also semi weak in a real game and DPR isn't actually that good. Building your party around having a DPR death machine fighter and helping him achieve that won't matter that much if he gets nailed by hold person and now the whole party is in trouble.
This is an old thread as well but the DPR builds were figured out very early in this game on the WoTC boards. The Eldritch Blast abuse was week 1 or 2 of the PHB launch, slightly longer for people to figure out how good Bless, advantage and GWM/Sharpshooter were.
The main problem with the melee DPR builds is that they are melee and strength based. At ranged they are reduced to throwing a single spear for 1d6+strength damage more or less. A gish who can use eldritch blast, an archer or dex based PC or a Paladin (any) in the part is more useful than a DPR machine along with a PC using the shield master feat.