Of course I would reference Bruce Lee over Chuck Norris!
Anyway, I didn't mean to imply that it shouldn't exist simply because it doesn't fit my play style. I don't really want them to remove it at all, but given its current state, it might as well be. Sure, boxing would be fun, but there's no mechanic for that right now. There aren't any boxing gloves, there is is "duel," system to really make it worth while. Also, aside from PvP, unarmed is fairly useless in PvE as well. If you try killing a Black Bear with unarmed now, compared to before they changed it, you might win, but it's going to be close. Set aside the notion that you shouldn't be able to kill a black bear with your bare hands. lol
Yesterday, it took about 15-20 seconds of non-stop punching a buddy of mine to kill him, and that's constant and consistent unarmed punches at level 50 unarmed combat. Yes, he was wearing bone armor, but I got out my preorder knife and it took 6 seconds to kill him (about 4-5 hits).
I'm hoping that the revamping of the combat system changes the role of unarmed combat too, and I echo your concerns about the dodge and parry system, as I'd love to use that a lot more. I always prefer more agile fighting styles over the brute force style. But, within the confines of the current and limited combat system, unarmed has been rendered useless, and that's my point. Who knows how long it will take them to give us a new combat system, especially considering there hasn't been any mention of it from the developers aside from it being planned. While we wait for that much-needed revamp, why should unarmed be a completely useless form of combat?