The fighter changes were more in line with the dungeons becoming harder around the character and the need for leveling up early in the game's difficulty curve to be made more obviously useful for new players.
This isn't a fighting game, nor is it a competitive RTS. Half of the point in DD is throwing things that would otherwise frustrate you and end a run at the player so that they can overcome that hurdle
What if everyone used Dwarf Fortress balance logic and "losing is fun" to justify strange fighting game balance choices? Oh wait. Dan.