I’m thinking in terms of how Long Blades involve investment in Dex for damage in contrast to all the other weapons, which use Str. So it segments you away from any other weapon type, and makes it less possible to switch if you find, say, a really good artifact of a different type (whereas with any other weapon you would’ve been pumping Str to begin with so the only drawback is the XP already put into the other weapon).
It seems like starting a character with Long Blades puts them at a disadvantage without any compensation, unless you’re a stabber who’s already training Short Blades and pumping Dex.
It might be an issue, but during a normal game you are going to be able to find a nice long blade that can really mess some stuff up at high dex and dex is very reliable for making your characters more survivable since dodging doesn’t require any gear.
MfGl or DgGl who use long blade will have insane dodging and long blades damage at the end of the game if they go full on dex.
Dex is good even if you aren’t using shortblades as long as you train a decent amount of dodging! And switching to a weapon that uses a different stat won’t matter too much in the end, you will do enough damage. I quite like going Long Blades on non stabbers, early on you can just swing a +2 dagger of venom or something until you find a nice longsword or scimitar