Even with a 25/25 weapon, bards do not match the melee damage of a paladin/SK wielding a 25/25... (double attack > dual wield, and has the primary hand damage bonus)... without talking about bashing. Bards (even with this) are still well behind other melee classes.
So, I would not think this is a mistake, rather the bard melee issues are an oversight by Verant that is now being fixed with weapons like this.
Edited, Thu May 9 11:41:38 2002