The way the classes worked out in D&D was that warriors and rogues were best at the low levels, while wizards dominated at high levels. The way the Wizard's spellcasting works out, a well-prepared high level Wizard can do anything better than anyone else, aside from healing. But at low levels, they're borderline useless, with d4 hit points, no combat ability and a handful of weak spells to cast each day. Warriors, on the other hand, get both the ability to consistently dish out high damage (for the level) and the resilience for prolonged combat. And Rogues, thanks to their numerous skills and particular talents, generally get to be the troubleshooters of the group.

And then you had Bards which could do pretty much everything and sucked at it all. Or you could go for a Cleric or Druid where you can do pretty much everything and be good at it.

Druids are particularly good at it. Even at first level, thanks to their animal companion, they're more than capable of performing front rank duties. It'll only get worst when you add Wildshape. Between your Wildshaped form, your Animal Companion and your Summons, with a few buffs you can completely ridicule anything a dedicated warrior can possibly do while at the same time casting AoE spells like Flame Strikeor Storm of Vengeance to pretend you're a Wizard. Minmaxing Clerics can probably get you a better result than a Druid, a well planned out Wizard can achieve fantastic results, but Druids can do pretty much everything they do as a basic feature.

So yeah, I can obviously see why you would like the class, and you're not alone, but fixing it was pretty much an inevitability. Hence why I called it the most reasonable change ever.