chuckle, I'll bite; what's it supposed to be, according to you? Feel free to leave out the sarcasm, I'm actually curious.
It's a video game.
The game does not market itself as a simulation / simulator. It does not market itself on being historically accurate.
It might reference taking inspiration from our Earth in ideas that are varied across the board, but no where does it flat out state that the combat of the game is meant to accurately represent how melee combat works in real life and or how it was conducted.
The most it ever does is tug at strings which implies elements of realism such as "numbers may be a deciding factor" or that "whilst in the world you are subject to any attack, anywhere". It doesn't ever flat out say "The game seeks to replicate combat realism." A game that tried to do that was Kingdom Come Deliverance - and while I love the game, the combat was very clunky and not that fun to be quite honest.
If your argument for a good combat system is to mimic realistic melee combat, then by all means begin looking for a different game. Because you wont get it here. Want to know why? Because there is magic. Magic is intertwined into the game whether you like it or not, and it's main purpose will be for combat. What about bandages? Bandaging during a fight multiple times to heal isn't realistic, that takes part in combat too.. Unless you want to strawman and argue "well i fell down a cliff and bandaged myself that isnt combat!" well then how do you recover "well being" if you were drowning by using a bandage. That isn't realistic.
What about potions? Potions are inherently magical because through alchemy you sometimes use reagents and gatherables that have magical properties which amplify the substance used.
It's not what is according to me, it's what is according to Mortal Online. Do they incorporate realism-like elements? Sure. Should the combat follow 100% being realistically accurate? No. That's going to make for an even more clunky, unfun game. Good game mechanics and balance create good combat, as long as the core / foundation of it works.
The problem with it now is it is slow. I GET that there are other issues with the game, but making it slower isn't going to promote longevity in the game. Whether you like to believe it or not, the end game for MO will always be PvP. Sure, you can have guilds / groups / individuals who TRY their hardest to steer clear of it but you will always be subjected to it no matter who you are, where you are, or what you're doing.
Realism is such a pointless debate when it comes to combat, even if it makes sense. I'll provide an example
Mounted combatants in MO1 were super strong. They had extremely high damage mitigation due to being highly mobile, tanky due to armor, potions, and bandages. They were glass cannons without the glass. A smart MC could decimate a group of people - anyone who brings up that stupid argument of "well ackshually u just shoot them with a bow or earthquake them!!" funny thing is, a smart MC avoids this kind of shit.
... and guess what? A smart MC isn't a smart player, being smart at MC took little to no effort. Why do you think in MO1 people funneled so much time and money into their mounted combatant characters? Because it's WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY easier and more rewarding with way less risk when you can hit someone for 60-80 and ride away when in danger. Foot fighter? You get to kite away, good luck in heavy armor cause stamina is against you. Oh, and if a mounted is on you as a foot player along; you're just fucked.
You could equally invest time, money, and skill points into purely combat related / focused skills, with one being mounted and the other on foot and the mounted wouldn't have to try nearly as hard as the foot to survive, good luck securing a kill on a mounted as a foot player. Cause in MO1 it was nearly impossible outside of very niche, not optimal ways such as triple strike (Fist weapons).
This comes full circle to the slow combat, it's promoting not-so skill based gameplay but giving it to a broader audience. A lot of people I've noticed praising the combat aren't even people who want to play with the melee in the first place. They literally talk about making mounteds, mages, pet-users, etc. Because they know the system is fucking crap and don't want foot fighters to have any kind of chance on release. At least, It feels like that with the way some of you literally can only churn out insult, after insult, after insult when people who have much more experience then a lot of people against it are most of the time right in their observations, reasonings, and wants for the combat to be fast.
The slow combat isn't fun, it heavily encourages the ideas of gear crutching and using numbers to swarm / zerg to overcome skill; because the system crutches mechanically bad players.
I don't want super desynced, laggy fighting either; but I also don't want slowed down combat to where everyone is capable of the melee when it's clearly a system crutch then the player being good from a mechanical stand point.