Yeah it became a favorite my second watch through. The first watch was me like "this is just softcore hentai, uh". Then I rewatched it and the premise fully clicked and I could lean into the absurdity.

That is how I felt the first time I tried watching Kill la Kill and gave up after about 4 episodes lol

He grows on ya hard

Basically when dex mod didn't go to damage(pre 4e) it gave a trade off for choosing dex/ranged over str/melee. Str still affected melee damage for dex attacks too so strength wasn't such an easy dump stat for dex builds either. And ranged attacks were safe but dealt less damage.

Exactly, why would you?! Lol

Does it feel like they hit so hard from the safety of long range that building a melee ranger feels deliberately weak in comparison?

Nope

Yeah... I can hear you