I agree it would make sense if hit points contributed to increasing damage dealt and reducing damage received. But think what that would do to orc warriors and warlords?
I don’t agree that hit points are currently useless, although they certainly aren’t adequate by themselves, and being hard to hit and wearing lots of armour are indeed more important (but neither of these, alone or in combination, can make you invincible).
I’m pretty sure that more HP = reduced chance of getting crippled. Also, it’s no longer possible to have such high melee defence as to be semi-immortal (e.g. guys with a melee defence of 50-60 can still get hit several times in succession sometimes, and guys wearing heavy armour and forming a shieldwall with a heater can still get punctured by ambusher bastards’ curved daggers). If nothing else, HPs are still important as a safeguard against these things and can’t be ignored entirely.
Same for resolve: it’s not the most important stat, and useless on its own, but a safeguard for when HP are damaged and useful against a few specific enemies and also useful for getting everyone to confident morale with attack skills increased by some 6-8.
A build where you concentrated primarily on increasing everyone’s resolve and hit points would not be good for prevailing long-term against all comers, but it would at least make for some exciting battles where you’ve been pommeled but are still up for it and are able to shift the momentum in your favour.
