Were all greataxes used by the same person? I only broke my weapons when combat was exceptionally long and against enemies who had a plenty of armor, but even then such cases were very rare. I also tend to use archers with crossbows and spread damage with all characters, so that might be why I don’t experience weapon degeneration as strongly as you do.
Yes, but my melee DPS guys are swinging ten or more times per turn quite often though.