To answer the OP:
I think barbarians are a race choice for rogues because Conan was was a thief (probably a fighter-thief if you want to get real D&D nerdy). I rolled a barbarian rogue because it was a rare combination at the time - I liked the stats but I eventually hated the bulky model when it came to raiding.
I think Rangers were heavily nerfed because they knew that if they were on an even field there would have been waaay too many of them (there still were). The reasons everyone wanted to be a ranger were: Drizzt, Aragorn, and Aradune (not sure of spelling - was one of the original Verant dudes - ran around with flaming swords and made all the nerds swoon). Playing a ranger in the face of all their glaring shortcomings was to be a martyr for your coolness.
Don't get mad at the nerd jab - I rolled ranger for my first character because I was a Drizzt junkie.
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