Excessive mage nerfing in dom-III (?)

[WraithLord]

Putting together some various bits and pieces of information I'm starting to come up with a somewhat disturbing big picture.

What I know (based on AARs and discussions in this forum),
1. SCs are nerfed. Life drain only drains 5 first hp and only recover fatigue. Buffs are nerfed (they come with a vulnerability price tag). Morale is changed so that SCs can route if wounded.

2. Mages are nerfed. Range for many damage dealing spells is reduced. Favorite spells like quickness, relief and false horror (to name a few, probably there are more) are nerfed.

I assume that there are probably more changes towards those two directions. I'm starting to get worried about this:
First, I don't see why (or rather don't like the fact that) mages and spells got nerfed across the board in dom-III. Mages were already expensive enough in dom-II and their usefulness was severely limited by their frailty (in general, there exceptions of course). IMO nerfing mages them takes some of the fun from the game.

Second thing that for me is more disturbing yet more difficult to pinpoint, I am always wary when game developers start to take the nerf route to balance. As I see it, balance in complex environments such as strat. games can be achieved in two opposite ways, simplicity and complexity. Simplicity is making more factors and mechanisms work the same way (IMO, AOW-SM is a good example for a game that was heavily based on this approach). Complexity is achieving balance by making any given strat. useful in a very specific (not common) circumstance and counterable by a given set of counters. This can be achieved in games that are reach with features and mechanisms.

I think that dom-II has achieved pretty good balance in that approach. No given strat. was overpowering due to the complexity of the game and the existence of many counters. Even SCs that ppl have complained a lot about have many counters (stealth armies, Anti SCs, SC killing spells to name a few). I love dominions for being a complex and rich game in which balance is achieved not in obvious ways. I consider nerfing to be an easy way to achieve balance that, if used excessively, can take a lot of the fun out of dominions. I am worried that my favorite game will go that path.