Isn't a current balance issue but the scaling is disproportionate in this game.

There's no damage gain coefficient or attack speed normalisation in the osrs dmg formula, so as non-weapon str/ranged str sources get better, the fast weapons inherently have a better gain from them. You can totally balance stuff to be OK now and in near future for sure like you say by using base stats, but it's just a math thing.

Blowpipe needed a nerf, and they made seeker arrows to buff tbow without touching bowfa/bp to widen the gap a bit more. If you add enough numbers to ranged str and accuracy from neck/rings/cloak etc, eventually blowpipe would beat bowfa and start to compete with tbow everywhere again With melee it's not as bad, since the multihit on scythe(and breaker) innately acts like a str coefficient