I'm ok with unequally distributed, merely rough balance. I don't even mind some characters with "cosmic power, itty bitty living space."
Though I'd prefer such characters not be the iconic wizard of the core game.
I am not ok with "itty bitty living space" as "flavor thing that doesn't really mean anything in play." Or for that matter, with "itty bitty living space now, cosmic power much later."
The really hilarious part to me on this subject though is that you could blend some of the 4E balance ideas with some early D&D tropes and get something that might work pretty well. For example, maybe the wizard starts out fairly competent at weapons early on, because he hasn't yet been casting mind-alterating magic all his life. Then as he gains that cosmic power over his career, those other skills practically disappear (whether literally off the sheet or just relatively speaking because they don't improve is a matter of taste and the math).
That is, if you make characters more broadly competent to start, you have a lot more room to unbalance where their power comes from as they progress, without messing up the game model.