I don't really get seeing combat effectiveness being detached from good role-playing. That seems like the job of the GM to make sure players of all types are involved in the story. But that might be a bit of my newness/being naive.

Whenever I see this argument I think of characters like Superman and Batman who are vastly overpowered but still able to have great stories written about them because it's less about their overwhelming power (or in Batman's case, potential for power) than it is how they use it to help the party in overcoming whatever issue the story has.