I don't know the exact methods in play to calculate weapon speed, but IMO no human being on earth could move heavy weapons with the speed they do in Warband.
Bear in mind that most twohanders were actually quite damn light weapons, and not unwieldy metal clubs, and yes you did attack fast - the slowed down "showoff" moves are just that - acting. Medieval swordsmanship wasn't certainly a static attack-block-attack-block affair; it was preferable to dodge the attack and immediately counterattack, or to counterattack in such a way that it defeats the opponent's attack.
With the wpf reduction I really don't find the speed of weapons in CRPG to be really big. What IS silly is feinting with really large weapons which seems to defy laws of physics, but attacking speed itself isn't really problematic.
Most of the time, since the wpf reduction, if you get spammed (as a 2h/polearm player) it is really failing to attack from your side, or simply attacking on the wrong side. Of course, people with enough athletics have insane movement speeds (which bothers me sometimes, especially the look im going to literally run backwards uphill type maneuvers), which makes it tricky, but still.
Of course spam does work sometimes, particularly when you need to chop a multiple non-blocking/unaware opponents, but ehhh if someone's behind you and hits you in the back of the head, it is sort of your own problem (or your teammates failing to protect your back).