User blog comment:LilyheartsLightning/Citadel and Reckoning DLC announced/@comment-24174486-20130225174706/@comment-2219564-20130226161718

@4Ferelden, the kinetic barrier argument will not do, as ever since ME2, the shields are able to absorb melee attacks and rockets (and even energy beams, but that's a totally different matter), which you can see don't travel that fast. I tend to just handwave the fact as the shields' "threshold speed" being adjustable to block slower projectiles.

Personally, I don't see how this is much different to the "Omni/monomolecular-blade" business; simply a case of higher-tech evolutions of older weapons. I was actually originally highly opposed to the Omni-blade, myself, but later realised it had its uses (still plenty of room for improvement IMO, of course). It also helped that they actually put a codex article in the game explaining the Omni-tool weapons, though I doubt we'll get anything comparable for the "Omni-bow".