The throwing mechanic was generally not seen as a good thing by the player base. Not because of the throwing part, but the hassle of getting it back is what made it unpopular. The change was made due to popular demand.
Throwing it really only was a good idea with a single zombie, with a group of them you either needed to clog up your hotbar with 2 or 3 spears or another backup melee weapon. Basically you missed out on a lot of power attacks when using a spear.
The point of having a spear vs a fire axe is the reach ofc. And hte fact that the spear can penetrate 3 zombies at once with the right book. You should read trough the books and spear perks. The axe might seem better at first glance, but it really isn´t, for close up melee there is better options like the club or sledgehammer.
The water mechanic simply is badly done. I wouldn´t mind it too much if it would make water acutally more scarce. But it doesn´t, it still is an all you can drink buffet. The only thing it really does is forcing a certain playstyle.
@RStarphoenix the new system also hurts MP only. I have no water shortage in SP even without using a dew collector. That´s very different in MP. In SP you only need dew collectors if you want to use explosive arrows/bolts and the rocket launcher a lot. In MP you already need a football field full of dew collectors without using those....