I do not think melee combat is broken. It’s very challenging of course, but i can do some damage with my lowly thief with 2 daggers and have good survivability. It’s a matter of knowing which skill to use in which situation and when to dodge or switch weapons. When things get really hairy, i switch to a offhand pistol and blind the enemies, and use the time to recover or use my elite skill. Or just f*** up my opponents.
But i could be really wrong, as i never used a pure ranged character.