Wear a survivor firesuit and plate armor then. Get your dodge skill up. Take a hit once in a while, no big deal. It still has higher dps and no ammo requirement. The greatbow doesn’t make you safe, you can still get surrounded, swarmed, or sniped by a shocker bolt.
The Barrett does ~126 damage. That’s not exactly similar to 35. The greatbow isn’t silent and the good ammo has decently high crafting requirements. Also, you need 18 strength. I can’t stress enough how difficult that is to get with a normal playthrough.
Where? Around melee weapons? Those scale with skill, weapon quality, and even martial arts in use. Bows ONLY scale around strength, and quality to a lesser degree.