Chopped and Screwed

"Yes, paladins block more than warriors. Yes, they avoid and mitigate more at base. That's what you would expect from a beginner class aimed at children. But the reason the top guilds in the world have stuck with warriors is because they have all the tools when you have a player that knows how to use them."

Along with a incorrect thought that pre 3.0, a Paladin wasn't the option to tank Illidan due to Shear.

As for the first paragraph quoted, it's old school thinking at work that I hadn't honestly seen ... since well BC. The days that I had to post constant screenshots of myself tanking things that were "untankable" for a Paladin, only to have a group of people tell me all of a sudden "well pff yeah but isn't nothing."

Lets debunk some of what's seen above :)

-We'll start with the right terminology, Paladins have better block uptime.

-"That's what you would expect from a beginner class aimed at children." This statement is surefire flame waiting to happen between two classes.
The paladin class actually was one of the last to be put into the game, and its complexity and rush to this day is evident. There's still a myriad of mechanics, spells, etc that are clunky.
The Protection specialization tree was retooled not to assist beginners. Far from it. It was retooled because there was an honest outcry from a dedicated group of players that said "We have a protection tree, let us make use of it." To be frank when I tanked Pre BC, I had a very small set of tools. In BC it got better, but even then, lets not get it twisted, that set of tools was still very inadequate compared to Warriors or Druids. Whatever you did in tanking in BC that you perceived as difficult, was twice as difficult for me to do.
This isn't the petty AOE Trash Tank role I'm talking about, this is honest to goodness Maintanking I'm talking about. I'd of paid to see a Warrior tank FLK and all his adds by himself.
I dealt with a nerf to my stamina bonuses, a seal that made amazing threat at 5 stacks, but was insanely unreliable. There was nothing worse than to see my full stack of Vengeance time down and fall off.
I had to come up with innovative and creative ways to deal with things Warriors had no real issue with. If you had no shield wall, what would you have done on Kael'thas? My answer? pop my bubble/cancel bubble macro just as it was cast, and take 0 damage. Magtheridon? Same answer. Once it was known he doesn't switch targets when the ceiling was caving in, it was cake. Just bubble during that, and take it down just before the fight started again.
Beginner kid class indeed.. These two tactics mentioned took immense timing.
Shear before 3.0? NP! Many paladins found ways around it, myself being one of them, tanked Illidan without being sheared. Not an issue.

If we go forward to today. Yes we did get many toys that made life easier. No longer having to make a macro just to taunt like a Warrior/Druid,(it was a buggy macro too that wouldn't work right if the person with aggro was too far away.) It was far from the fire and forget taunt everyone else had enjoyed for so long.

The difference between a Warrior and Me today? There's no procs for a Paladin. However, that doesn't inherently make it a kiddy class. I still have roughly 6-7 buttons to mash, and I have to mash them all in a certain order to get the most out of it all. And, it's not to discount a Warriors rotation, I have a protection Warrior myself, I've tanked with it and other folks Warriors. It's merely switching from one flavor to another. Small perks here and there that are traded.

The reason top end guilds use Warriors moreso has to do with the fact that in most circumstances in any guild, tank turnover is very very low. This is well documented in Ciderhelm's most comprehensive guide, and it holds true to current World First guild rosters. When was the last time you saw Kungen guild hop? (were not counting the various mergers etc. his guild has gone through.)
And let us not forget the well noted and famed Joanadark who had originally played a Warrior. He most certainly did to majority of maintanking until he himself had left his guild and switched servers. The guild? Premonition..

I don't put warriors or any class for that matter into the pool of "kiddy class." Simply because if you wanted to be quite candid, all the classes in World Of Warcraft are designed to be "kid friendly." Any kid can pick the game up and go, and in most cases play it at least half decent. However, as was said by Ciderhelm, Joanadark, Ghostcrawler, and so on, you bring the best tanks to your raids, not the class.

I can entirely say this is true as I've maintanked every boss up to Funwell in BC, every boss in wotlk up to ICC. I can honestly say that I have disadvantages some fights, advantages others. But never has there been a moment where my thinking "this is an easy thing." been my thoughts about my particular class and spec.

It's best said as such.. "Anyone can tell an army to go attack, but it takes a true student of war to make stratagem, command, and put forth into motion, orders of intricacies needed to ensure success at its most efficient manner possible."

But, I mean if we wanna play that game... You guys hide behind your shields, whereas I am the shield people hide behind :)

Despite all this writing how emotionally tied am I to this long debated topic encompassing Warriors VS Paladin? Not really, I went through this PreBC, and BC. Whatever gets said now has already been said back when, and debated into the dirt.

I've sat in on many gm/officer meetings of many higher end guilds explaining the ups and downs of my class, telling and showing the why's to have a REAL Protection Paladin in their raids every night. And all the way down to coaching various very successful paladin tanks that to this day carry a "Maintank" title.
Efficiency and assessment of your corps is the true hallmark of a great leader. Not pointing out perceived weaknesses founded sheerly on notions gained only be what was seen.