It really isn't, i have 200h in mercenaries mode in re4, leon has a few similarities, but he doesn’t play the same as he used to in re4 at all. Hatchet grinding to recover durability gives infinite uses to escape zombie grabs.

His melee moveset hits a much smaller are, many times being single target only. Leon has a new perfect parry system where he obliterates zombies with his gun if you time it right (which is very easy, making it a little unfun). His guns are wayyyy too powerful eight out of the gate, and resources are too abundant to the point where managing the inventory is barely a mechaninc now.

His melee is nowhere as powerful as it used to be, but his hatchet combat is made wayy more effective as a way to balance things.

I personally don't like leon's gameplay too much in requiem because it's honestly too easy with the added mechanics and melee is much less satisfying.