When de Legro, Indirik, Lil wolf, and myself all agree that the issue with swordfighting skills/dueling is one of culture, not mechanics, then I would go out on a limb say we have a disparate enough set of people to say we have the root of the problem.
I think it is time to change this topic to one of, "How can we influence the BM culture to get more realms/players to think this way"
I will start the ball rolling by saying, "get rid of the law about dueling - making it clear it is a matter between characters, and not something for the Judge to be involved in"
It doesn't eliminate things like the king saying "no dueling" and the Judge handing out fines, but it sets the tone for the direction the game should be going.
I agree to some extent that the culture needs to change (and I like the idea of removing the law on dueling completely and make it kind of like a sacred right) however I think it's still important to address this problem and monotonous and boring training at the academy.
Perhaps we could make the academy more expensive but only available once every three days or something and it is triple as effective as current training. Maybe through reducing the dedication required to become a great swordsman we'll see the playing field even out. Of course those who can't be !@#$ed still won't be able to get ahead.
And yeah obviously that isn't a "good" solution but I think it's important to address the current mechanics as well.