I have to disagree with your use of Red Mage in the comments here. Although it is hardly a stellar class in most FF titles it isn't a "glorified meat shield". The Red Mage's lack of specialization does hinder it some (both in the extremely early game and in the late game, with a few exceptions) it's versatility does enable it to effectively combat any foe within the range of the game that the class is useful and viable. Also, Fighters and Knights take hits a lot better, and at times can be far more questionable classes to use than a Red Mage (FFI is the only notable exception here, since Knights were more like Paladins, after that they were just "glorified meat shields"). Without the Cover ability Knights are frequently only moderately useful in the early- to mid-game of an FF title (as there is little variance in damage amongst the melee classes, exception being Monks) and progressively more and more worthless after that point as they either lack the damage output (seriously, I've had Thieves in most FF titles out damage a Knight, even in FFI) or the accuracy to make use of their damage (half the time how the Thief does better damage, it at least hits), and tend to be one of the slowest classes you can use making its sole saving grace the fact that it's really hard to kill a Knight. With the Cover ability however a Knight can be a vital class in the late- and end-game portions of an FF title, but without it a Red Mage is almost always more useful.

Nothing you said is explicitly wrong, Raz (though Cover is ignorable by rather a lot of things) but keep in mind that the Red Mage wasn't actually called a meat shield. PRINCESS called Darkmoon a meat shield because he's a vampire and kind of unreliable; MIKE called Darkmoon a Red Mage based upon his actual competencies.