I have played many a fighter, monk and bard and you know what I never flt useless. I was a member of a team and I had my skills. I had a blast playing those characters and will play those classes again.
To be honest I think the people who complain about this have either had bad DMs who didn't know how to tailor adventures for the characters in his party or didn't follow the rules. In a recent thread someone was complaining about how a wizard could know every spell. His DM never made the player roll a spellcraft check to see if he could actually put the spell in his book nor did he make the character do any bookkeeping so he had never had to buy a new spellbook.
There was another thread about how the party was knocked out by a high level monk because the magic users of the party couldn't get past his improved evasion.
I also think some players judge how good their character is on how much damage they can do. The fact that having a bard in the party helps everyone do their job better seems lost on these type of players.
At least I now know where this very annoying meme comes from.
