It is even trashed PvP. I had to punch out Zeds and I got into a fist fight with a player on my first life on .47. Bad mechanics.

I will admit, however, that the bad mechanics for melee have existed all along. I don't think Bohemia intended for melee in their gun, tank, helicopter, and jet game.

Even with an axe or shovel, the melee combat is still very bad. There is very little skill involved. I get hit 1 second after I thought I evaded and I hit nearly before I strike sometime. Winning melee is random. It is not skill-based.

Exactly the same.
It's trashed with any melee weapon, even long ones like axes or pitchforks. Hard as shit to hit a target.

Melee IMO should be based on where your crosshair is, thus having your melee weapon go for where your croasshair is. Otherwise it's just impossible.

I have been having this problem too. Before recent updates I was able to kill zombies with one or two hits with the fire axe (and other weapons/fists), but now I am unable to land any hits on any zombies. I just died trying to kill a single zombie with the fire axe; I had full "healthy" stats (hydrated, energized, healthy) and I couldn't knock the zombie down once. After five minutes of continuous axe-swinging the zombie owned me. I can stand as close to the zombies as possible and not be able to do any damage to them.

Confirmed. The axes do not "reach" the zombies anymore....