Your also mistaken about how dance works. Its not as generally percived that you dodge as if your dex was 1 higher.. How dance works, is that if a dodge fails (and you would get hit), you get an additional chance at dodging based on your dex. This is why dance is decent for both high dex and low dex races, as high dex races will fail dodge more often and thus get more chances at the legacy working. High dex races will fail dodging less, but when they do fail they have a greater chance of succeding on the second dodge chance. This approximatly even it out in the end, although im guessing high dex races get the greatest benefit overall.

Ward of blades work exactly the same. If you fail a parry you get another shot at it, which means ward will fire more often with daggers but succeed less. Compared to swords as an example.