I think if you roll stats that you can't be assured a 16 in your primary, but a 14 is hard not to have. The game's ease via bounded accuracy means that having a 14 still means that you do very well. That's why I say 14 or 14-16.
A paladin, wizard, druid, cleric, or bard with 14s in their primary, secondary, and tertiary scores can still be a beast.
Again the issue is the WOTC nudged players into thinking 16 or more in your primary was normal and they extremely emphasized the importance of ability scores.
And this backfired when the player base started to want to PCs other than racial stereotypes while also forcing playstyles on specific ability scores.