Slings and Hand Cannons are in the category of one-handed ranged weapons that you can use with a shield. It’s a fun build, and not bad to use. I like to play it.
There’s a problem with it: there is no mid-tier one-handed ranged weapon. You have your sling, a starter weapon which is plentiful but not very good. You have your gun, a strong but rare weapon that you’ll ideally find at some point.
For basically every other class of weapon, there would be at least one middleground option. Your war axes, your tridents, etc. Something that you won’t have right at the start, but should reliably find somewhere in the dungeon. For the one-handed ranged weapon enthusiastic, there’s nothing. You are going to use a sling until you are blessed enough to find a cannon, which sometimes you just never do because cannons seem to be quite rare. So you either suffer in sling hell for eternity, or you give up on your build and throw all your shield or ranged XP in the trash so that you can use a weapon that doesn’t make you sad.
The solution: revive the humble hand crossbow and give it stats that are better than a sling and make it sort of common so that you can probably find one in the Dungeon somewhere.