1) If arrow weight does only affect running speed, then what else has changed to nerf archery? Did they change the missile speed also? Also as a HA, I cannot turn my body on the horse as fast as I could once, what is the reason for that? How many possible ways are there to nerf archery damn it ...
2) I agree that kiting can be annoying for any other type of infantry but hey, you are wearing heavy armor and heavy equipment, how do you expect to catch a light armored archer with mainly wooden gear? You are excusing your natural disadvantage against ranged units to nerf them, this is both selfish and ridiculous.
Would I be too pessimistic to think that many of the investors for the new game project invest in that because they are generally infantry and they want to have a game with only sword play?
Arrows weighing more was the only recent nerf. This applies to throwing, and crossbow bolts as well. In fact I think there was a slight change in the PD/WPF formula to make higher PD builds more rewarding, but I'm not sure if they kept it in or not.
Heavy infantry are still much slower then archers, at least ones with maxed Athletics. Pure archer builds with 3 or less Athletics used to still sprint twice as fast as any melee in medium armor, it was very lame.
Archers can still kite and reposition between shots pretty easily. They were just obscenely fast before. There was a temporary change that halved Athletics based on your PD level or something of the sort, it was much more drastic and was reverted because it was too unpopular with archers. So the balance team definitely isn't biased.
Also keep in mind as you get less and less arrows in your quivers your speed should start going up. Weight is the total of every arrow, not just the quiver. At least, that's what the main archer balancer, Shik, told me.
As for the new game, chadz and co have assured they are working on a new, deeper engine for archery and other ranged mechanics. It sounds like it will be more difficult and skill-based then Warband currently is, but so will the melee fighting mechanics. And probably be much more rewarding to play in the long run for both.