No, what I am saying is that since those who like to shoot into melee will no longer do damage up close, they will have to shoot from far away which is not accurate and will result in a significantly higher amount of friendly fire.
We would get more long range shooting in today's cRPG if either 1.) People start using mass formations which is what archery was traditionally used against, or 2.) if the ability to hit people from far away was not so ludicrously difficult compared to shotgunning.
I though take a middle approach, and long distance snipe at crowded nests or formations (and by the way, in my experience tight formations are seen on flat open plain maps, rather interesting), or mid-range shooting.
Sad but true, even if damage was nerfed hard for short range shots, I would still do them as you hit significantly more targets that way then at the long range you-have-a-second-and-a-half-to-react shots.
The reason why cRPG bowmen perform so radically different from their historical traditional counterparts is because the cRPG melee infantry don't act like their traditional historical counterparts.