Which weapons deserve "plot protection", to make them intentionally slightly better than other weapons? It depends on the culture of the setting.
Personally, I want circa 1000 Norse weapons to be effective:
• Sword (same as knightly arming sword and Celtic spatha, but different from the longsword)
• Spear (hunting)
• Axe (wood)
• Bow (hunting)
• Knife (utility)
I want the circa 1300 Versatile Longsword to be worthwhile for freehand grappling or extra damage.
I dont especially care about the Renaissance Greatsword, but maybe anime fans enjoy this as a "buster sword"? Likewise I dont care about the Renaissance Rapier. I would rather have the proper knightly arming sword to do the 1d8 finesse damage along with a shield. The Renaissance stuff can get distracting, but I am actually ok with a certain city featuring Leonardo Di Vinci Renaissance flavor as part of a local setting flavor.
I want the Shortsword to be effective, for the flavors of Germanic seax, Roman gladius of gladiator combat, Greek Ksiphos, and so on.
I want to see a katana − namely a Versatile Finesse weapon − be effective.
I would like see nets and bolos be more effective for combat, because fun.
The weapons that have the best gaming mechanics are the ones that the players choose. The prominence of certain weapons is enormously vital for the overall flavor of the game.
When you imagine the "default" medievalesque vanilla D&D setting:
• Which weapons come to mind?
• Which weapons do you care about, that you want to make sure are prominent and are good choices mechanically?
• Are there any weapons that you find distracting, that maybe dont make them so great?