I like the idea that a dagger can be as deadly as a greataxe in the skilled combatant's hands, but I also like there being a good reason to use different weapons (which 5e doesn't have, admittedly, but 3.5e did). Finding/building a combat system that makes both skill and weapon choice impactful without bogging things down though - especially for that one player at each table that takes 30 seconds to add up his modifiers FOR EACH ROLL (despite being written on the character sheet) - seems like an unachievable Holy Grail. It seems like you need to focus on just one aspect ("Skill" or "Weapon") to keep the streamline. the Greataxe outperforms the dagger in a "you only hit if you do more damage than the armor" system; the dagger is just as useful as the greataxe in a "I have more skill" (or "I am luckier with dice!") system.
I like having an excuse to talk about my game so Ill take it here.
I mentioned in my initial reply here about "Momentum"; an exploding dice based mechanic that gives you "Boons" you can leverage for a number of benefits, and also handily runs the Durability system in probably the most painless way possible.
I think the value in the system is that Im able to exploit the nature of smaller die sizes in this system to give a counterbalance for "Light Weapons", like Daggers, against "Heavy Weapons", like a Maul.
Because smaller dice are more likely to Explode under the Exploding dice mechanic, having less raw damage is a trade off for being able to do more, ie, gain more momentum in a fight. That alone flips things heavily back towards the smaller die sizes and dice pools; if you're wanting Momentum, you want as many of the smallest dice you can get.
But
then, this also gets combined with my take on the physical Damage types (blunt, piercing, slashing), which expands the 3 into 7 by using combinations of the 3 types as unique damage types unto themselves:
Blunt
Piercing
Slashing
Blunt/Piercing
Piercing/Slashing
Slashing/Blunt
Blunt/Slashing/Piercing
The 3 Pair damage types actually just split the total damage between the two types, and the Triple pairing is a unique one that applies only to swords (great, long, short), which all have the property
Versatile, which lets the user deal out the 3 types at will in any amount.
While the 3 types are ultimately still simple, by making these pairings I am able to derive a number of unique status effects corresponding to these pairings. For instance, Axes are typically Slashing/Blunt weapons, and they can inflict the
Laceration status effect, which combines the Bleed of Slashing (dealing the weapons damage die per round until healed), with the armor penetration of Blunt, resulting in a status effect that not only deals out the Bleed, but also applies that Bleed damage to any attack that connects with the victim.
Through this, Im able to counterbalance back towards heavy weapons, as status effects will be at their best the bigger the dice are.
And thats just the base level design that doesn't incorporate all the interesting things weapons and armor are going to be doing as a result of a robust and highly customizable Crafting system, which will not only drive even individual weapons to be hyper unique in their capabilities, but should also help diversify playstyles so that, as long as I keep everything in check, nothing is left as a "dead" option other than old, low level content, as it should be.
The key to all this is is that the actual math involved is quite low, especially during play, with the most effort you have to do being to simply add up your damage rolls. Everything else either keys off sight (you see a 6 on a d6) or is just 1 unit +/- (you invoke Momentum to deal more damage, add a tick to your Durability)
Overall it will be relatively involved to immerse into, but even now in the systems overall anemic state, once you're there it flows pretty wonderfully.