And yet, for all of that, I've noticed that your fighty characters are both A) Much more numerous and B) much more PK-successful than your mages.

I don't buy the 'I played mages and it was easy, so they need to be powered down' argument; this feels more to me like a 'The stuff I don't like playing as much should be made weaker, because I don't feel like I'm beating it by enough' post.

Incidentally, you're overrating the DR power of those spells. More than once I've seen one of your warrior-y characters (back in the day -- I couldn't even say who you're playing now) go into a fight with more DR than a full A/B/S mage.