I like Cavaliers in Basic D&D, but in 1E they're just kinda... "Oh, yeah, here's a class where you're forced to play a snooty noble who must always remain dignified."
R. A. Salvatore can at least write a bit. But give me a teenager who wants to play a Chaotic Good Outcast who wants to Redeem his Race for being So Sinfully Evil while waving around twin scimitars, and the roleplay is a bit... less.
While Cavaliers were basically just fighters who were forced to use high quality armor and had a bunch of bonuses for being on a horse (Oh, and they could increase their physical stats a bit every time they leveled up), a Barbarian was... oof.
They could detect magic, detect illusions, had a chance to block an attack from behind them, had thiefy climb, hide, and sneak abilities, could jump hella far and hella high, could track like a ranger, could use bandages to effectively lay on hands, could identify plants and animals and predict the weather like druid spells
It's a bunch of magazine articles crammed in to make a hundred thousand dollars, not something designed to keep from unbalancing the game by having a bunch of normal players and then a guy who can just punch a demon in the face because he grew up in the wilderness, followed by a guy who can summon earth elementals because of his race
ELF BLOAT
THE BEGINNINGS OF DROW PCS BEING OP AND DRIZZT