Unless you’re consistently getting +1 ranged defense increases, as far as the defense goes, using Initiative at +5 (which translates to basically +1/+2) is worse off than just picking up ranged defense. Dodge and Anticipation interfere with each other as far as choosing bonus points go; ranged fighters typically get ranged attack, max fatigue, and optionally max hp to prevent one-shots from heavy crossbows to the face (through their mail coif). Meaning you really only have one other stat to invest in: defenses, or initiative.
But sinking points into initiative also boosts initiative, which lends itself into many other benefits (say an overwhelming suppressing fire build. Enemy archers and even polearm users are no longer a problem.)
Besides, the perk uses your total net initiative, not only the extra points you dedicate to it every level up. You really don’t need to sink many points into initiative in order to greatly benefit from this perk. Equipment choice matters more.
Problem in general is that towards late game, there will always be more enemy archers than your archers, to the point that unless you went all bows, there’s no way to put an Overwhelm stack on all of them. And if you go archer heavy, you’re basically asking to get surrounded by an enemy that outnumbers you.
Not to mention that trying to put up lots of Overwhelm stacks via Quick shot builds up Fatigue quickly, making enemy archers out-initative you anyways by virtue of less Fatigue.
At the end of the day, the question is: do you Crowd Control, or do you just outright kill them? I generally prefer the latter, because my two-handers are better crowd control via Shatter/Split/Swing.
