I actually think that OP is probably correct, and here's why. According to Yoshi, SqEnx's intent was that no one would be able to clear Bahamut's coil with the gear currently available. He believed they would need Crystal Tower gear. The fact that people were able to clear through the first four turns so quickly (making Crystal Tower mostly obsolete for them in the process) suggests that things were easier than intended.

That all leads me to conclude that PLD may have been too strong. However, I don't think the disparity between PLD and WAR is as great as some people believe. It just seems like, based on Yoshi's intent, the difficulty of tanking endgame content with WAR is actually the intended difficulty.