I understand the thought behind this and some other ranged weapons have not-so-realistic alternate modes as well (e.g. war darts), so why not make arrows a stick-it-in-the-eye-melee-weapon as well...
But I think we have enough unrealistic nonsense in M&B, and if you ever tried to use a real arrow in that way, or, even worse, your delicate, pressssssious bow... naaa.
Any archer should carry at least a fashionable dagger or something "bigger" to have fun in melee - even if it is a very brief fun usually.
Sometimes I even carry 1h + shield, which makes kill whores complain about the baaaaad shield archers, because they hate everything they can not one-hit, at least not all of the time... ;-)
Boxing, kicking, hopping and whistling is the other option. Or make your looks so ugly so that they turn and run when they get too close...