Barbarians. What's the point?

I mean, for a melee class, they don't seem to me to be very useful. First of all, you can only put two stars into weapons. Secondly, you can only wear up to splint mail. To me, it just seems like it isn't worth the trade-off. I know you get to move faster, and you get a bit more HP, but it just doesn't look like it's worth it. Why not make a berserker? Then you get grand mastery, plate mail, and you can still enrage.

Anyone disagree? Please tell me there's something I'm just not getting here.