Nodachi does not leave you safe from retaliation even vs normal Z’s (if you miss) and can’t be used against shockers, acids, etc without taking damage, technicians can disarm you, etc, etc.
.50 cal uses limited rare ammo and alerts the whole neighborhood to your location.
Greatbow is silent, ranged, auto-learn recipe that uses effectively unlimited ammo while still dealing similar damage.
The problem is, the rest of the game was previously balanced around the kind of scaling melee weapons have.