They CAN use it, for basic MELEE attacks...
but with the axe as my weapon of choice, i woul rather go for high strength... and so I would like to use str as my main stat, even for the off hand attack...
I would even invest a feat in a suit of chain. I know this is far from optimal, but axe feats and throwing axes require high strength, so It would be an ok choice...
The same logic is true for the hunter: you could make a hunter using strength for throwing weapons, but the encounter power keys off of dex.
So, right now a balanced str, dex build seems more ore less working... with 16 dex and 18 str or vice versa, it works well enough, and you save a feat for chain, which you don´t need...
edit
f course that is far from optimized!
