Well, you can beat the game dual-wielding large rations if you want.
That's not the point and you know it. Nobody in their right mind would do that unless for a very specific kind of a challenge game and how often people play these?
Swinging serpent's bite, executor, kinslayer or some random eternium stuff of dev can be just as much fun and for 90% of monsters - just as efficient - as using aotme.
At the same time you can actually role-play it and maybe carry a few such weapons for different occasions.
That's why the random artifact was nice and I had at least several situations where that artifact was more desirable than aotme for the sole reason of specializing in that kind of weaponry.
I think that the optional nature of the maze somewhat diminishes how often people go there.
When you can get past the labyrinth and kill mino emp, you're already powerful enough to finish the game.
Getting aotme and all the other things at this point doesn't really make the game that much easier since you're already set for the end.
I had plenty of games with and without clearing the maze and I don't remember the differences being that substantial in the larger scope of things.
There are some costs of getting there (MM, tele, healing, item destruction, stat drains etc.) and putting your hands on the rewards and the ordeal that the maze is for many players, often puts them off and they just ignore it.
However, I guess you have a point, maybe the axe itself is just too OP.
Like I said earlier though, I don't mind having the other rewards removed/nerfed, like the poga and spellbooks.
On the other hand I disagree about the random art being removed.
Again, I have a strong feeling you're looking at the maze from the perspective of min-maxing and extreme efficiency.
Yes, for that the axe is absolutely the right choice, but that's not how everyone plays.