The weaknesses of fighters were always overstated. At a medium level of optimization, a fighter and a warblade tended to do similar damage and both outperformed the barbarian by a smidge. However, the fighter was always vulnerable due to a lack of defenses and had not very much to do outside combat. In Pathfinder, the fighter's offensive output is stronger, mobility is higher, and they get a bonus versus fear. Pathfinder's revised skill rules (fewer skills, less punishing for cross-class skills) allow a fighter to be secondary in any of several roles, ranging from diplomacy to stealth to scouting.
While a fighter can rarely match the sheer "shazam" of high sneak attack builds or twinned admixutred spells, etc., over several rounds their damage output can be very high and consistent, they can use combat maneuvers very effectively (moreso in Pathfinder), and few opponents can completely ignore them (maybe a flyer with a weird DR type would be hard).
