Arrakis, you never said that you wanted a merger, but that seems to be what your proposed rule changes are doing. By making green weapons do a combat hit and counting pierced limbs toward death you're making stabbing and slashing do the exact same kind of damage.
Noone is saying that thrusting will become slashing, that's just stupid. They'll always be checked in different ways. What I'm saying is that there is no difference in the way the two types of damage are taken in your changes. While they would still be two different classes in writing, the effect of the weapons on the field would be almost exactly the same. That is what I meant by merging the two classes. If they both do the same thing then how are they different out on the field?
Do I want greens to be able to "keep up" with blues? Of course, but not if that means making the damage they do exactly the same. By my way of thinking greens already "keep up" and there isn't really any change necessary. As I was saying before, not every target is armored. There are plenty of people out there that a one handed stab will kill or injure, even more if you're accurate with those stabs. This is exactly the dimension I'm talking about. What you hate is what I like. You have to know who you can and can't stab, or be ready to have them call armor on you.
I guess I just don't see your realism arguement about the physics of armor as holding much water. If the changes went into effect as you propose then stabs would have to hit armor twice before going through. How is that more realistic? Why would an armor that stopped one stab not stand up to a second one? I suppose that it could hit in the exact same place, but I don't think I have to tell you, our resident ME how unlikely that is.
There is no need to start ranting about wild changes that would make garb into armor. I don't think anyone here is making any kind of outrageous claims like that (except me earlier when I failed at rule reading). If we really wanted to be realistic about who would and would not be able to fight, one limb would be death, or at least you would be out of the fight. We have loads of rules that are designed to increase longevity (the 'invincible leg' rule for example), why is it that this one is such a sticking point?
Tuba, in response to your question you would do the same thing any blue wielder does, either ask their armor condition or stab them and hope. Alternatively you could just use two hands and not worry about it. Remember that it is up to the armor wearing person to keep track of their armor and report its condition honestly. If they don't then we have a problem that is much bigger than this ruling.