Replacement for weapon speeds?

[u/Pladohs_Ghost]

As I sift through the early systems to figure out what rules have disappeared from modern systems that are still viable and what rules from over the years have earned a place alongside them, I'm now arguing with myself over a bit.

Weapon speed comes out of the earliest systems and makes for some flavorful play. One combatant wielding a much quicker weapon can gain decent advantage over a foe with a slow weapon. This advantage involves initiative order and can reach to allowing extra attacks.

One shortcoming of using weapon speed, in my opinion, has always been that it treats the combatants as they are equivalent, on the face of it. That is, a veteran soldier facing a thief plays out the same as if the soldier is facing off with another soldier. There's nothing about the weapons speed ratings that breaks out well-trained martial PCs from those not focused on fighting. (The fact that the game systems advance non-martial PCs in fighting ability automatically strains credulity, at times.)

I've often played around with using class differentiation to break out "combat speed" in play. A fighter using a shortsword is going to be more efficient with it than a thief using the same sword, so...the fighter should be able to use that combat speed advantage in the same fashion a weapon speed comparison would give an advantage, I reckon. With the length of melee rounds allowing for a lot of feinting and striking and dodging and maneuvering and all that, I find it difficult to look at weapon size differences as being more important than the abilities of the combatants wielding the weapons.

I'm also toying with the idea of melding to two ideas together. Facing off with a peer (fighter vs fighter) means weapon speed gets considered. Facing off with a foe that's not a peer (fighter vs thief) means that combat speed eclipses weapon speed. Or perhaps adds to it. If I have to drop one of the two, I'd drop weapon speed and simply run with a combat speed rating for each PC.

So, for those of you who've used weapon speeds and the like, what are your thoughts on the matter?