What you said might have been true at the very beginning of the game before people begun to understand how to mix templates and get the proper foods/gear/buffs.
Up to pub 9-10 (before we got a mass of jedi reroll) this was the most balanced game I ever played, easily, it's not even close, everything had a counter and only some love were needed for a couple of prof (ranger/ch/smug)
It has nothing to do with nostalgia though, bad people were rolling a FOTM template all the time but if you look at the big picture all those FOTM were in fact balanced and viable templates that could counter each other.