Do you think the game will have melee?
Or only throwing and using items that break on impact as melee weapons?
Valve probably wants to avoid disconnect between your real hand and what's happening in game so the only melee weapons I see them doing are Combine stun sticks that would send enemies flying back.
Knives would work too if they were single use times, but I dunno - stabbing is kind of violent, and the game seems kind of upbeat and comical compared to Half-Life 2. Stabbing a fucker might be kind of a bruh moment for a normalfag that hasn't heard of Blade and Sorcery. It's too fucky in Pavlov to make an emotional impact so it doesn't count either.