What I'd like to know is why sprinting is almost indistinguishable from normal movement? What's the point of hard coding and binding a mechanic to the keyboard if it doesn't really do anything. It's baffling design. Maybe chalk it up to 'it's beta' and is very, very unfinished, as that feels the most generous to the designers.
If I were to put my two cents in thou, the entire sprinting mechanic could use an overhaul. For example it granting a percentage increase to your overall movement speed, which is primarily increased by dexterity. And is reduced by the weight of your armor and equipment relative to your body weight. So a lightly armored, high dex character is going to noticeably sprint faster then a heavily armored, low dex character. By noticeably, I mean anywhere from 20-50%
However, in order to not be the end all be all of combat, regulate it to where you cannot sprint with your weapon drawn by default, and require a skill in order to sprint with your weapon out, and even then it's limited to only certain weapon types, like daggers or spears. Sprinting IMO should be for quicker land travel and for escape, and should have limited value in combat.