I am against the temporal balancing that was hardwired into AD&D's DNA. The idea was, as Turing explains, that your Wizard would suck at low levels, but would achieve ultimate powah! at higher ones. This screws up the power curve all the way through. Early on, the player and by extension the party is "too" weak, and later on they run roughshod over everything.
But, I find talking about things at the level of class to be unhelpful. Part of what I love and why I still play 3.5 is the richness of its character creation system, so talking about a "fighter" doesn't mean much to me. I can also confidently make fighters, rangers, monks, etc. that can hang w/ well-built wizards, druids, etc. at pretty much all levels of play. I played an epic level rogue for over a year and never felt outpowered by the massive spellcasters.
This thread did remind me about my forays into Burning Wheel and Mouseguard. These were both based on BG's suggestions, and I picked up MG at Dragon*Con, got the beautiful book signed by the artist, played the Tolkien Hack there, etc. And, back in NYC I tried out playing BW w/ some guys, picked up the 2 core burners, etc.
I find Mouseguard extremely endearing and interesting, and someday I will run it in its native setting. The thought that I would be really interested in running a game involving fluffy adorable mice (swords or no) is quite surprising to anyone who knows me.
Burning Wheel, however, was a marked disappointment. Don't get me wrong, I think the main innovations of the game -- the Beliefs and the Instincts, etc. -- are really great. I like them quite a bit and the idea of how they would drive a game quite a bit, too. And, they are worlds better than similar, ham-fisted attempts of games past.
But, the game is essentially unplayable. The guys I was playing w/, some of whom were BW veterans, were saying things like "yeah, we never really use the combat system," which indicates to me that it might be a bit flawed. Likewise, character creation, pretty much anyone's first introduction to a system, is a nightmare. It makes little sense, and I often found the system doing its best to get in my way from creating something. That is, it wasn't good at enabling things.
That, and I resent Mr. Crane's statement that "we don't have a setting for BW." BW has one hell of a specific, intrusive, and particular setting. I just wish it would come out and say it, that way I could build my character around that rather than ignorantly struggling against this particular take on 12th-century France.