Critiquing the "Guy At The Gym" Fallacy

[Satinavian]

Because it's a game?

Yes, fights that Hellboy fight are designed to be winnable by Hellboy. And games with Fighter should feature fights winnable by Fighter. I'm not convinced I see your point - are you saying that you, as GM, would toss Fighter into a fight he couldn't possibly win, then laugh uproarioushly at him for picking a class that cannot win such a fight?

Because then, at least, we have a genuine disagreement: I consider my job to be to entertain, and present manageable challenges.

No, in a game with a fighter i will make sure there are enough challenges, problems and plot hooks for a fighter. But i won't change the setting in a way that the central conflicts and problems of the setting are something than can be solved with a sword.

So depending on what the setting exactly is, it is very likely that a fighter is not the most important person around or at least he is not important because of his fighting abilities.

Also i don't play D&D and won't actually have a Fighter. But i might have characters with strong melee skills. But considering that a significant number of adventures cebter around investigation or environmental hazards or politics or mysteries or exploration, "punching things" is not particularly often useful. And that is fine.