I'm deffinitely down with weapon types mattering, but I would rather not see a situation where a lower level weapon is far more effective versus a particular mob type than a higher level weapon would be. DDO is a great example here since it follows D&D rules. When fighting skeletons of any level, any magical mace is goiong to be quite a bit more effective than even a max level dagger. I find that tedious. Raw weapon damage should always trump secondary effects in my opinion, but a Rogue that switches to equal level maces instead of daggers for that skeleton boss should do more damage than one who does not. I would rather weapon damage matter for mob type, not armor type though (at least outside of PvP) as that could open the door all sorts of tedious stuff like tanks having to cary around a high AC chain shirt for specific fights or needing all three weapon types at a high level to keep agro on different bosses. Changing based on mob type with humans being neutral (no bonus in other words) would mean that one has to change weapons based on location not individual armor types. I think that is more in line with what VR intends anyway.
As for weapon speed, I too hope we get a wide range of different weapons. Once upon a time, WoW had varied weapon speeds with very slow 1 handers and very fast 2 handers being the most rare. It allowed one to choose based on how your damage was calculated. If your non auto attack damage was based on attack power, then fast weapons would be better, but if it was based on weapon damage + X, then slow weapons were king. I found it fun and it gave needed flavor to different classes using the same weapon types.
Oh, and I love the idea of Monk damage changing based on stance when unarmed (Tiger, Mantis, Bear, whatever). It would give them a unique mechanic that can improve overall damage even if their raw DPS tends to be a little lower than other melee DPS classes.