Right now you can use the melee weapons without proficiency with some success (if you have no PS you'll do less damage, but that's it). Ranged weapons, on the other hand, are not useful if you don't put at least 100 proficiency in them , being archery the one which needs most, then throwing? (not sure) and at last crossbow (which doesn't need a special skill).
As this is the case right now, you can put your wpf in a ranged weapon and still be quite useful in melee combat. Should it be that way? I'm a noob here so I'm not sure, but I think melee weapons should start doing less damage (in addition to the speed) and less speed at lvl 1, and at lvl 150 be a bit (only a bit) faster than now at that wpf.