I think the problem with paladin right now is the same thing that made people used to say they have “the best” cards.
Paladin cards in general are seen as “good” cards in that they do a lot for their cost. Divine shields let their minions go the distance. Handbuffs are usually very efficient. Even the dudes add extra free value, at least in metas long ago. Equality combo used to be very potent in winning the value game.
If you’re curving out like an arena deck and the paladin is curving out, the paladin will probably win the board more often than not.
But the flip side is that the paladin class lacks mana cheats. They occasionally get some expensive extreme jank (anyfin, tip the scales, to the front, etc), and librams, but those are exceptions.
Pally cards are “better” because they have to win the game with those better cards without fancy tricks and cheats to further boost them.
In metas where playing “normally” is a solid strategy, which is most metas (by definition, if it isn’t most metas we wouldn’t call it “normal” lol), paladins perform well.
But today’s meta have promoted more unconventional ways to win. Druids love to ramp and build big denathrius, mage does spooky stuff and ping stuff and big spell stuff, shaman evolve while double downing on disruptive battlecries. Hunter quest. Priest quest. Rogue trying to jank out big dagger/ghost or bombs (though to be fair rogue is probably one of the classes pallies don’t have as much trouble against, though that depends a lot on luck of the draw)
This isn’t to say unconvention decks didn’t exist before, but they weren’t as common or powerful.
If you want to win the “old fashioned” way of building board and smashing face, you need to power creep (see for example imp lock or wild seed hunter).
