[Aleph]

It may be that the game simply does not take its main purpose for nation design tight balance for hyper competitive MP? Certainly, the manual itself suggests in the last paragraphs before the beginning of the Grimoire that there are units (and possibly even whole nations) that are in there to be neat, to provide fun and interest, rather than be min-maxxed into unstoppableness.

In this regard it is somewhat similar to many fighting games. There's usually about 20% of a fighting games roster that makes its way into serious tourney competition. The others are there for beginners, or for people who think that a character that looks cool or has an enjoyable theme is more important than frame advantage. Unless there is a much smaller ratio of actually usable characters, though, or one or two are massively overpowered, most in-the-know fans don't criticize game balance.

Edit: And I don't know crap about MP, but Lanka IMO is really better off with E9N9, not F9W9.