I... I didn't read all of this so forgive me if what I'm about to say is covered somewhere in here already, but allow me to ad my voice to this question.
I believe the problem is primarily underpowered mundanes, and until someone does a hard rewrite of TEAM:MONSTER I'm going to feel that way. Even if you proceeded to ream out caster power the challenges presented by the Dmg and MM 1-X, Fiend Folio, and co are or rather can be devastating to a non caster party. If 2 fighter, and 2 rogues stroll into the ghostlands, they become one with team monster pretty quick.
There are skills that outright are replaced by spells "Sim-Salla-bim, bitches" but that failing is in the skill system never being allowed to do thing like open the door and the burden of staying closed is on the door. I may not be all the way clear with that but take something simple like G.Invisibility vs. Basic Hiding the class skill. With hide you're forced to roll meaning you can roll poorly, G. Invis the opponent does make the attempt, this doesnt' mean wizards are broke it means things like invisible stalkers existence are radically more succesful at staying hidden. etc. The problem is the mundanes are victims of a system that makes it hard for them to do thier jobs. Imho
Ah finally someone to have a meaningful discussion with!
Ok, I think our base difference lies in the power of Team Monster.
I believe that mid powered classes can deal with most monsters their level with only a little bit of thought. Casters do it way to easily IMO. Yes, fighters and commoners and their friends have a hard time at it, but this problem is minor IMO.
Take the ghost mentioned before as an example. I'm pretty sure a party playing together that includes a warlock or a warmage and a bard can handle such an encounter. Yes they will have it a lot harder than just dropping some CC bomb on them.
The dread Necromancer wont mind that much, he can cast control undead and take control of the ghosts.
Even the lower tiered classes (like a fighter and an expert) would have something to do, since all ghosts have a reason for their existence, their job could be to set those things right, that would prevent the ghosts from coming back.
With this in mind I don't think Tome is a good idea.
Tome classes buffs "mundanes" to Tier 2, pretty much. I'm not against giving the mundanes minors buffs, but IMO tome went overboard. Not to mention the whole problem with retraining the monsters feats, and thus making more work for the DM.
On the other hand is pathfinder, pathfinder attempted to buff the lower level classes and nerf the higher level classes, exactly what I want. Their problem, IMO, lies not in the idea, but in the execution, their nerfs seemed pretty random, the druid and cleric got hit pretty hard, but the wizard seemed to have cast invisibility and didn't get hit. The paladin got awesome, but captain barbarian didn't get much better.
Now, high tiered classes laugh at most challenges that give regular characters a sweat for their break, they even do better in most combat encounters.
For example:
The group has to get access to a dungeon, located underneath a nobles castle in a major city, since they have heard rumours of a kobold force attempting to attack the city from below. When finally in the dungeon, they have to steer clear of a number of traps, both magical and non magical. Fighting of a minor counter attack by kobolds untill finally fighting off the dragon that is leading the kobolds.Casters response to this is: Spells, Spells, Spells, Spells. Or in case of clerics, Diplomacy, Spells, Hit them with my sword, Spells. And druids: Wildshape, Wildshape, Wildshape, Wildshape and spells.
Mid-Tier classes, or semi casters would have to think more. The rogue might be able to sneak into the castle, and get into the dungeon to disarm the traps, then he would have to think of a way to dodge the fighting, to move on to the dragon and get some good sneak attacks in.
A warlock would deal with this according to the invocations he chose, being able to charm your way into the castle is good. But how are you gonna deal with the traps? And with the right Invocations, the kobolds are gonna be a cake-walk, but when he finally arrives at the dragons place, does he have the tools to deal with it?
A bard might easily charm his way past the guards, have some summons for the traps, but unless in a party he will have huge trouble with the traps.
A warblade would have trouble getting past the guards, but would have moderate difficulty with the traps, (since they are only Hit point damage to him, as he can stop any ability damage with IHS). And a lot of kobolds would probably not matter that much to him. The dragon probably would though.
Now, assume the above had to work like a party, the caster party would all go crazy doing their own thing, and blast through everything.
The semi-caster, or mid-tier party would have to work together to be at their best, the rogue dealing with the traps, after the bard has charmed their way through the guards, and they would have to work like a unit to bring down the encounters, the warblade moving into unfavorable positions to give the rogue a flanking advantage, the warlock locking down some threats while the others can deal with those at hand. And the bard buffing the rogue and the warblade to make the monsters go down faster.
All in all I much rather like the experience where players have to work together and think their way through encounters, instead of just using a spell for that. And high tier classes do just that, they have immense variaton in their abilities from their class, so they don't really need to think when handling encounters. Which IMO becomes rather boring.
PS. Oh and Hi Welcome is just a weird form of trolling, just ignore it.