Thinking back on it though, a lot of characters in D&D fiction have pretty high stats. Caramon Majere had an 18 Strength, Raistlin had a 17 Intelligence, it's been awhile, but I think Sturm Brightblade had a 17 Strength. Gary's own Gord the Rogue had sweet stats, including ad hoc "sword training" that gave him a +1 to hit and damage with a sword. And of course, Hall of Heroes shows that the early Forgotten Realms heroes all have great stats (I think Alias had a 17 in everything!).
Went back to check, and this isn't universally true, they gave Shandril Shessair less exciting ability scores, but given that she's a walking magical WMD, I guess she doesn't need them, lol.
I remember thinking though, whenever I saw published ability scores for characters, especially in Dragonlance adventures, that this is what was really intended for PC's. I don't think any 2e designer weighed in on this, but even the examples of the character classes listed legendary and mythical figures that would likely have some pretty high ability scores.
And yes, as Mannahnin points out, it's very odd that Gary would put rules patches for Warriors in the super special bonus round of needing an 18 in the first place, lol. It's like he thought his player base were a bunch of gambling addicts!
Then again, he probably expected players to either cheat or keep rolling up characters until they got one they liked, given his rants about those darned (kids) PC's!