Personally I have always felt that the combat system can and should be improved, it's just that whatever improvements and changes to the system need to be actually better than the current one, and this is a hard point to justify for any changes. I've tried to take a look at it before, and I've fixed a few glaring inconsistencies, but apart from that and occasional bug fixes, I haven't done much for that part of the code.
We are indeed moving towards something more uniform and easier to develop with, so perhaps changes to combat will not be that far off, but... in the meantime, ideas are always welcome, even if they won't ultimately be implemented.
