DPS ≠ Melee

I'm getting mixed messages from Paladins here. So... let me sum it up for everyone. DPS DOES NOT MEAN THE SAME AS MELEE! RETRIBUTION PALADINS WILL NEVER DPS! However, Blizzard DOES want Paladins to Melee and be on the front lines, as opposed to hanging out with the clothies.

Yes, yes, this is coming from the Holy paladin who doesn't know aaaaaannyyyyyything about being a Ret Paladin. But, plain and simple Paladins don't DPS, and they never did. They did however melee with the best of them IE. Uther & Arthas (Although Arthas was kind of overpowered in the human campaign with his bubble).

Why can't a Retribution paladin support his team with melee based attacks, applying buffs and debuffs? Why can't a Ret pally have some sort of melee based healing factor/ability that isn't just a seal? Perhaps an aura/ability/talent that gives raid/party members 50% of the buff of your seals when it procs. (This may apply only to Light/Wisdom).

Here is an example of a support ret paladin in 2.1 (PTR), it's not exactly the best thing, but it's an idea of where I'm going with this: Support Nub

As for a Paladin's DPS, we wtfpwn Undead better than any other class out there, because of skills like Holy Wrath, Turn Undead, & Exorcism. Which is highly in tune with what the Paladin is/has been in the Warcraft universe & lore.