To be honnest I believe than personnal attacks are the only reason this thread keeps on, since the question has been answered in details and no one really disagree on the core issue.
No it's not mendatory, yes you're reducing your lifespan. Now we can move on.
Edit : Just to discuss the trials because I'm a sucker for this kind of thing, just two remarks :
1 ) You need to perform more tests to define trends. Two tests are not enough to draw a solid conclusion. Repetability is absolutely key in solving that question scientifically. Tho it can give you insight, two is too few to be conclusive.
2 ) You're not testing what needs to be tested. The question is not "is 2h weapons better than 1H+shield". It is "how does wearing a 2H affect my survivability as an adventurer". To answer that question you would need to write a protocol that would mimic the conditions of an adventurer : for instance, putting them against groups of goblins (3, then 4, then 5, etc) and note how far the test subject goes with the weapons that need testing. Repeat, switch weapons, repeat. Switch skill level, repeat, switch armor repeat, and so on and so forth.
Another test you can perform is a LD50 test, but it's more appropriate to fort mode, but their results are usually consideredsuper reliable. If I wanted to show that X equipment would increase or decrease survivability over Y equipment, this is the test I would conduct. Take an even number of test subject, let's say 4, give them the skill of an average starting adventurer, then test how many goblins it takes to reliably kill half of them. Once your result are reliable, test with the other set of equipment. You have a very solid ground for comparing survivability from there.
This is just a proposition that would make your test more viable, take this as peer review.