Bill Zebub
“It’s probably Matt Mercer’s fault.”
Opportunity cost. Dial wielding in melee.
1. Don't have -2 or -5 to hit if firing into melee.
2. Two chances to sneak attack.
3. Splits up incoming damage.
4. Can halve incoming damage.
5. Sometimes range matters with hand crossbows and sortbows so they can't sneak attack due to range.
#1 A lot of DMs don't apply negative modifiers to shooting into melee.
#3 & #4 In a lot of situations there is no incoming damage if you're at range
#5 I more often see the case that you can't get into range at all with melee weapons, so it's hard to have sympathy for the archer over range issues
#2 Yes, this is the one advantage of having two weapons, and is the whole point of the hide/shoot cheese.