No. I remember Barrett being really min maxed. He has the best raw physical stats, even better than Cloud's but its coupled with the absolute worst magic stats of all the companions. Cloud has the best overall stats. He has no real weaknesses and his growth is fairly even.
He has the best vitality and second best strength stat. Cloud has the best strength and the second best in pretty much every other stat. You probably remember him having lower str because you filled him with more magic materia.
And again, the stats don't really matter. Barret's strength determines how much damage his GUN does. The gun with
infinite ammo that he needs to aim from the fucking elbow because he has no wrist. Cloud's giant sword might be hollow or enchanted with some antigravity shit for all we know. The dumbest thing about it is that there's a different version of it for sale in every village the party runs across. Along with a different gun-arm prosthetic.