I think the limited lifespan of the weapons is helpful in getting me to use other weapons. But I don't think it leads me to employ any real strategy. I still smack the shit out of the enemies with whatever I have in my hand.

I actually like when weapons/armor degrade - when it's done properly, and not like in BotW/TotK. That means, games that give you an opportunity to upgrade your weapons, and then, when they break, to fix them.

For me, glass weapons of BotW/TotK are one of the fundamental flaws of that design, even as non-Zelda games, since most of the "rewards" are built around that - there is very little incentive to actively search for such rewards, and even Shrines are something that becomes a chore since they always give same reward (orb), instead of something new and unique (on a related note, I really hoped Jewerly with special effects from Gerudo Town in BotW would evolve to be amulets and rings of classical RPGs, but that doesn't seem to be the case in TotK as well, further limiting rewards).

There are much, much better ways to make players try out new weapons, and not undermine your own game loop in process, than what has been done in BotW formula.

I wish the axe would at least be permanent or have a way to fix. I wanted to experiment more with Ultra hand last night (still on sky island, don't have much time to play) so started felling trees. But the axe broke. Found another, broke as well. Looking for another, my build reset as I wandered out of range. So now I'm hesitating to experiment with trees as I might need my axe later...

Maybe there is a way to make an axe head later? I've only just completed the second shrine for fuse ability. (What a convoluted way to make fire arrows...)

I don't think it's convoluted but it's a bit anticlimactic to pause the fight every time I need an element or bomb arrow. They should have allowed us to fuse arrows before hand instead of only fusing when we need to use them 

Figured I'd post this oldy from the same debate around BOTW:

I don't agree with Sterling all that often, but I really think he nailed it here. Especially about how shitty it is to have your players paused mid combat encounter in a weapon select screen because their weapon broke or is about to break. It's just not a well designed system.

Witcher 3 did weapon durability much better than BOTW imho. Even the weakest rarity tier weapons and armor tend to take well over 50 hits before fully breaking based on my playtime (with high rarity gear like the craftable Witcher weapon and armor sets lasting much longer), fully breaking in Witcher 3 doesn't mean your weapon or armor is lost forever like most weapons in BOTW, it just greatly reduces the damage of the sword and the damage reduction percentage of the armor until you repair it, blacksmith repairs are relatively cheap and available in most towns which each tend to have a fast travel point, and you can buy weapon and armor repair kits from the blacksmiths to take around with you in your inventory, or loot them while exploring, in case you need emergency repairs because you don't have extra armor or weapons with decent stats on you. But even though Witcher 3's durability system was that much better than BOTW's, it still was not perfect, and proved contentious with players, with many PC gamers deciding to disable Witcher 3's durability system with mods. 

The fuse ability gives you a plethora of things, like elemental attacks, making an axe is pretty effective against wood shields or those tree monsters, hammer against rock (armor, shield and monsters).

Of course you can seemless smash the weapons against your enemies... you do you

It's not that hard to find strong new weapons in either BotW or TotK. Even more so in TotK where you can make any stick significantly stronger.

Agreed with the OP on weapon breaking being good. There is too much hate in general around the weapon breaking mechanic. The whole picking up weapons throughout the game idea wouldn't work at all without weapon breaking. And it makes it so you use a bunch of different weapons which is fun.

That said, I do wish the weapons lasted a bit longer. Fewer breaks in the middle of battles would be nice. Or like say have a meter of the weapons durability so you can see how low it is getting rather than just it flashing red when its about to break, so you can go into battle with a different weapon if you don't want to make a couple hits and then suddenly your weapon if flashing red about to break.

Reforging weapons in towns with like say the metals you've picked up in the wild would be cool too. That way if you get a weapon you really like you can reforge it rather than having to wait until you find it again.

So yes I think the weapon breaking system could be improved, but I have no problems at all with the idea of weapon breaking in general. Definitely think it is a good thing, and not a bad thing like so many people think.

That's the convoluted part. CotM does it right, lets you fuse status arrows together beforehand then makes it easy to switch between them without pausing the game.

So far every mechanic I've seen triggers a, nice to use in open world but have seen it all executed much better before :/

TWD S&S Chapter 1 gets the balance right. Plus you can still harvest materials from nearly broken weapons by recycling them. It would be nice if it had a repair option but it's easy to just build a new weapon. Plus the inventory is all together so it's up to you how many fun toys you take around vs how much room you leave for loot to bring back. (Chapter 2 breaks the balance by throwing double the amount of enemies at you still with the same weapon durability, forcing you to bring twice as many weapons along as in Chapter 1) And you can always use a spoon or whatever else lays around to use as a weapon.

The issue with BotW is that weapons don't even last one fight. I routinely needed 3 to 6 weapons for the harder enemies. Just leaves no room for experimentation. Can't afford to give up the space.