Kind of pointless to compare ranged to 2 handers, but w/e
Ranged have no conditions to overcome to deal damage, they can do it from anywhere
You can get as many ranged as you like attacking a single target, melee can only have as many as can fit around a guy without dealing team damage and they all have to manoeuvre into position
Melee damage is easily mitigated with any melee weapon
2 handers effectiveness is 0 when they hold a shield, they become a purely defensive role until they get into range. The weight from the shield detracts from their primary role, unlike a ranged guy taking a melee weapon to block
Some xbows shoot through shields like they are paper and have no requirements, don't even need WPF
Some ranged get all the benefits of dealing damage from range without much drawback in melee. Xbows especially. A good 2 hander that starts playing ranged will rape in either situation. Most dedicated ranged aren't as experienced in melee, the ones that are have the best of both worlds.
The main thing going for melee is that they naturally employ teamwork to take out groups of players because they are right next to each other and main targets have to be in range. They can charge into a group and put ranged on the back foot so they have few team mates around. I'm not saying melee is weak, I think melee has probably at least 70% of the impact in determining who wins a round. I just think ranged is cheap and has poor game mechanics that make me wonder why they are allowed to do damage at all sometimes.
If some people had their own way the game would consist of 2 blobs pointing shields at each other while ranged pewpew for 5 mins. Gets nearly like that as it is. Its boring gameplay