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People forgetting the "master of none" is the problem. The idea is that you're versatile, but un-specialized. You can do plenty, but put up against a specialist you pale in comparison. A lot of people don't do this though, their character is ttly-awzum at EVERYTHING they do, therefore cutting out these specialist characters (like support characters, people who heal, use artifice, survival guides, etc) from the picture.
There's two factors in your discussion.
Specialist vs Generalist
and the party complex.
The problem with specialist vs generalist concepts is this: Most players can't fill the specialist role. That's just the truth. Someone who says they're a master of a certain magical aspect or martial art can just as easily make a piss poor mistake because they're being played by a 17-21 year old who will go for flashy over practical, or make tons of logic errors.
You can't aptly play a specialist in that regard unless you play at the level you conceptually are. If you're going to pretend to be a master of the sword, you better have done your bookwork.
Now say magically you focus on say a solitary element. You need to have thought it through, research the element, researched fantasy moves from various genera that have used that element. What most do, however is simply see something in a single comic/manga, show, or game and say "Oh wow that's cool!" and try to emulate it. That's not mastery, even if you play your character off like one.
Same goes for martial arts.
As far as the idea of an independent person vs a party concept. Blame it on the loner types and single-combat events. A fighter that's going to spend their time on their own is going to have to develop traits aside from their single mastery in things otherwise they'll get overtaken. Kind of falls in line with the evolution of warfare and why I don't like Kran's idealized idea that no person who isn't a mage should cast magic.
The hybridization of magic and melee was an inevitability. Progress demands evolution of various kinds throughout normal history, weapons, war tactics, have all evolved in the sake of getting the upper hand. To me saying someone who uses an appropriate level of magical augmentation to their physical skills is wrong, is like a Brittish soldier calling the American Gorilla tactics cheap. Or the Americans calling the North Korean's Gorilla tactics the same. The process occurs in fantasy as well as reality and there's really no sense in trying to stop it. Best thing to do is regulate it so it isn't overpowered and hope that the 'underdogs' in the event have the wits to overcome it.
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