as observer i see that melee against high end npc (i mean animals high exp creatures ...-1+k exp) for power leveling is same like ranged.
for kill alot npc with ranged guns is more easy with ranged gun, at least looks like 1 guy with ripper can fight them all, but it just looks more hard then kill with ranged gun.
ranged in pvp - most used way to kill players in wasteland.
melee to kill npc work good, at least for me.
ranged for kill npc work same.
actually all weapon here is balanced.
i mean knife at low lvl works good at low lvl npc(same with high lvl simple knife is not so bad, but ripper is best).
2nd weapon tier melee weapons - very good at low lvl npc at low lvl , good/not bad at all for mid lvl and same for other levels.
same with ranged.
anyway, tb fight in fonline is easy/hard like in fo2.
so anyway, i m telling about my observation