Why would you leave out the weapon in this? You do use a weapon when using Snipe right (BTW, it requires you to use a Musket).
were not trying to determine how much contribution the weapon would have over the the base dps and str
since your questioning strs effectiveness over the base damage of snipe
which is puny because snipe is a single hit attack, front loaded with base damage, unlike the variety of multi hitting spammable skills within the archers tree.
in most cases weapon damage is far more significant than both str and base damage, and would just skew the comparison of base damage vs str needlessly.
i dont get why your so tunneled on snipe, its a strong skill but its purpose is burst damage for finishing off low hp enemies, its not a dps oriented skill that scales too well with str or base damage. its mostly raw base damage which seems to be the main attraction for you since you can just grab it and stack con.
So, if weapon damage is literally 3x the amount of scaling in this scenario than STR, then what does that say about STR scaling?
that it gives more damage?
not everyone can aford +12 weapons and not everyone will wear 2handers with high base damages,
str is just a practical stat to have for doing damage since its so readily available and scales up with ranks so the more invested the bigger the returns.