I always think of warband combat like tennis (I play a lot of tennis, although I'm not so great at it). It's turn based, and much more about sweetspots and momentum transfer than swing speed or strength.
The musclebound brute that just swings the racquet as hard as he can rarely actually delivers a winner; usually he commits an error or hits an easily returnable ball. But I've seen <100 lb girls that absolutely crush the ball, and it's because they transfer all of their momentum forward during contact and hit right on the racquet's sweetspot. They aren't actually expending any energy on the "swing"; their racquet is just the last link a kinetic chain that starts with weight transfer from their feet.
In cRPG, that's analogous to the players that take advantage of holds, footwork, head bonus, and speed bonus. San has 5 Power Strike and a 34c weapon, but he hits harder than most players with a longsword and 8PS, because every strike is a held strike to the head with full speed bonus.
Swing speed is a different discussion; the old, wide sweetspots rendered the weapon's stated speed nearly irrelevant, because you could hit early in the animation with good footwork and turning into your swing. The sweetspot change nullified that advantage, and the weapon's animation speed is everything again. Which is why the popularity of polearms is through the roof now, because the polearm overhead and right swing are insanely fast and erratic now, which offers a huge advantage over the smooth 2h animations.
