Yes! Though that does undermine the sentiment a tad.
So, by 'balanced' you mean that some characters will be far better than others...
Y'know, you may be thinking of 0D&D or some version of Basic..., 1e AD&D had 'exceptional' % strength as a feature of the fighter and it's sub-classes, so an 18 STR was almost obligatory to be a worthy fighter. Things that mitigated against that included magic items that replaced rather than added to your STR, and, well not much else, really, Specialization, DMs who didn't allow STR bows...
In 1e, yes, you did, though a Girdle of Giant Strength could take care of that for you.
In 5e you can pretty seamlessly emphasize DEX, instead.