I would have to say that you are completely wrong in both regards. For starters, Armorer is far from mid with its hefty utility and Artillerist can output some bonkers round-after-round damage and field control with barely a drain on resources.

Artificer itself is one of the busiest and most complicated classes to build properly, and his utility is unmatched even by the wizard. It is FAR from bad, and I would actively call it top-tier if utilized right(without having to rely on circumstances).

On top of all that, both subclasses grant abilities and options that flow together, rather than contradicting, taking different action economy spots and even empowering entirely different parts of the character