Yeah, I will absolutely admit that battle system is lacking currently. Its actually less about it not being fair, and more about what we are used to at this point in gaming, that being developer tricks to make you feel bad ass. Before changes were made, it was exactly fair, but we have been slowly shifting things in the players favor though. Incorporating a few small but common tricks into the system will hopefully keep us going until the full refresh.
If the battle is too much of a turn off for you after the next update (0.2.43), I would say to keep an eye on the project still. That battle system refresh will be here soon enough.