For me they're not the problem, they usually are slow, and swing slow.
People wearing transitional and higher with an agi build are really the problem, tanks as well, but much more quicker.
Yes they are the problem, because they can spam almost as good as you do
Sorry Shodan, but I'll never take word of any kinngrimm's clone seriously. You are the ones who crutch this mod using fast and spammy 1h+shield builds.
On-topic:
I'm using two types of gear, 69 body armor medium plate (fully loomed) and 24 body armor rags (non loomed). I also have 8 ath. While I usually have better scores in loomed armor there are times when I have same scores using light gear.
Thing about light gear is that you can't afford mistake. Not just mistake in fight, you have to move very carefully if you want to avoid: random projectiles, friendly random projectiles, enemy and friendly horse bumps and mostly friendly players whose fighting style is "mindless spam". Once you overcome all those difficulties, game is almost easy as if you're using heavy gear.
The thing that bothers me the most while I'm using light gear is the fact that every, even the slightest friendly bump chops 20-25% of my HP. If devs decide to lower that, it will be much easier to play as light armored player.
While I'm in heavy armor I'm strong and feel invincible and therefore make plenty mistakes, like fighting groups of 4 and more players on my own on enemy territory, rushing into archers nest and such stupid things.
In light armor I'm a lot more careful, and sometimes I'm almost able to win round on my own (I said almost, because there is always one ranged guy left to shoot me before I annihilate his team).
Fun fact: do you know that 75% of time when I'm overwhelmed by enemy melee infantry (like 5 or more of them) I die to ranged (xbow). I'm not making this up...
Corsair, I like you a lot more when you were 2H. Now you're just another useless 1h/thrower combo build made for teamplay blah blah blah...