The Doom fist uses the q3 gauntlet animation, which basically moves the model out and back in. Easy hack.
The chainsaw does the same thing. The 'idle animation' is a shader. Easy hack.
A spinning barrel, a straight punch, and a moving shader are all easy hacks. Weapons that needed and could use one of the above recieved them. None of the weapons have proper animations because q3 doesnt support them. A swinging axe requires several frames of animation which Q3 DOES NOT HAVE BUILT-IN SUPPORT for.
Here is what is necessary to make proper, multi-stage animations for the weapons.
1) Working code. We have to code the animation system from scratch. Phoenix has laid the groundwork for this, and knows what must be done. However, things like GAMEPLAY must come before animations, and the core of gen must be complete, otherwise a small change down the road could break the system.
2) The animations themselves, which will take time. I believe most of the weapons will need 7+ frames of animations. We do not have this done, and don't have a proper animator yet. Phoenix could do it...but not while he's coding the mod. See above.
Also you said:
Also I figured gen would have some respect for the originality that ID put into their bloody axe. Also I thought gen was supposed to be close to the models and skins from the game the class is based off of.
We did make most of the models very close to the originals, but we figgured that a double-bladed waraxe screamed 'badass' more than that silly little hatchet the Q1 guy carried around. Trust me, back when Ren made the axe, we had this very discussion. We like it, and the old faded bloodstains gives it a 'well used' feel. We're entitled to a little bit of originality ourselves.
So before you critize, know what you're talking about. If you don't know what you're talking about, ask. A simple "What is necessary for the animations to be added to the mod?" is a lot better than "I think you could have done this, so why didn't you?"