Having every enemy in game use ranged attacks is, as Jayvir put it, just stupid.

Kiting is an accepted strategy. It is rarely used by parties, but is a very effective for soloing. Implying that Archers or Mages or anyone else for that matter only want it as an easy mode, is silly and irrelevant. Kiting takes just as much attention as any stonewall strat, especially since we have to stop to perform an action, we can't just run away and attack free of danger.

What I don't understand about monster ranged attacks is that most of them are more powerful than regular attacks. That's ridiculous. I'm sorry, but a blast of snot is not going to hurt more than a goat head to the chest.