This is from the original manual, and there is more in the hunter specific section (though pulling it up from Google is a bit difficult and I no longer have my copy). But it is “primarily a ranged attacker”.
No where does it mention anything about melee or being a hybrid, and the class has always used a bow specifically for the class icon. Given how the specs played back then, I don’t see any reason to believe hunter was ever intended to be a hybrid. The melee was there as a designated weakness for us due to our ability to attack on the move reliably, along with a bigger focus on RPG aspects back then (since archers are typically weak in melee combat).
The gameplay fits what the community believed it was intended to be and even the manual seems to suggest that yes, we were not supposed to be played in melee if we could help it.
Edit: Found another pic of it that focuses more specifically on the hunter itself.
