User blog comment:Varzan Deodinm Beldinm/Overpoweredness and the Tension: Should we Care?/@comment-11188061-20140825052527

Not really. I've already given my explanation before.

1) Team RWBY is an exceptional first year. There aren't many Teams that can face down a Paladin and win so decisively.

2) If we assume that Team RWBY fought with one member lacking, that match might have been won by Roman. If they don't have Ruby, they'll have no coordination. If they don't have Weiss, they'll be pummeled to no end by ranged assaults. If they don't have Blake, they won't have a versatile fighter who can get in and get out safely. If they don't have Yang, they don't have decisive firepower.

Weiss provided cover, distraction and buffs to her teammates. Ruby provided leadership and battle strategies. Ruby and Blake together provided the firepower and speed to decisively cut off the Paladin's arm, and that still might not be enough considering it took 2 of them to cut a limb, which defense is obviously incomparable to the main torso's armor. Yang provided the decisive firepower the rest are lacking, whose Semblance can power her up to the point she can one-shot most enemies.

3) Hunters need to be trained, and you can't always guarantee quality. Machines have a set standard that while predictable, can be mass produced and fine tuned and put on battle immediately, without all those psychological trauma stuff that might plague a soldier's performance. Hunter are still the best fighter in town and no one wants them gone (except Cinder maybe? We don't know), but machines are just more reliable. And with the creation of Penny, a machine that can generate Aura, Ironwood may have found the 'key' to turn the tide completely against the Grimm, or at least, he believes so.