Regarding OP's suggestion, if you have infinite arrows, would you need to "repair" your arrow slot? i-e the same way a gladiator repairs both its sword and shield?

I think that crafting and buying arrows serves the same purpose, but with a more realistic and fun approach than repairing. Maybe they should just make the ability that you shoot weak straw arrows automatically when you run out of arrows instead of having to trigger it manually on the action bar (don't remember the name of the ability).