I guess the archer nerfs were to make archery more skillbased. No matter how good 2hander or polearmer you are, ANY archer could just run from you and shoot you to death eventually in 1v1 situation
Hell, Any archer could do that to 3 2handers at once. Ofc, there is always "get a shield n00b!" answer, but you still couldn't catch the archer. So you still have no chance to win against him.
Now that they can't run anymore, the archer has 2 - 3 shots he can take before he needs to engage in melee, or drop his bow and arrows and run. Still, the melee guy has no chance on catching him, so the archer cannot lose this one either. Just make big circle and pick your bow again, get those few shots. repeat till you win.
Archers against cav is a bit different. If the map/surroundings give the cav player an advantage = archer has no cover. OR the archer has an advantage = he has some cover. Now the map decides how it goes.