I can see some value in Guppy's degradation proposal, but that by itself I would not like very much.In order for me to appreciate that kind of complexity, I would need an equally complex system going in the positive direction.
If repair kits degrade weapons and lower their stats, then I would want methods or items to enhance them as well... for instance, an upgrade kit. Other things I would want in order to feel like this is worth its complexity is that weapons would have to be rare and/or you can only find/craft level 1 weapons and you must slowly upgrade them to level 6 with high stats.
With all that in place, I would truly feel like my weapons were my babies. I nurtured them into maturity myself. But without all this, degradation alone I would just see as unnecessary complexity without any real reward for having to put up with it. In other words, a PITA.