Hi there, I'm going to have a go at clarifying the differences in the ranged weapons.
The daggers you describe are a thrown weapon with a melee stat on them. They're intended for use by assassins, warriors and templars. Those classes, based on the abilities they would use, will favor melee damage. It's pretty useless to them to have ranged damage on any gear they have equipped because they simply won't use it. It would be a wasted stat.
Crossbows and bows are intended for rangers. They have ranged damage on them. There are also main and off handed weapons with the ranged stat on them (which would normally be melee damage because you're hitting things with them) because melee damage has no benefit to a ranger.
Incidentally spell casters (prophets and mages) also have their own ranged weapons and main hand weapons with spell damage on them.
I wouldn't say we've messed anything up. Rather we're trying to let people choose what is most beneficial to their build.
As for weapons available to you, there's a crossbow available in Weaponsmithing at level 11 (I see you've leveled a little since making this thread). Either that or you can buy a level 12 crossbow in Deadeye Bows (to the top left of the fountain in Eldevin City on your map).