Yeah I agree to put the Protector one tier above. However, the Protector counters nobody. He can nullify the effect of the cow and the manipulator, and therefore act as if they had no effect, just like the protector. On paper, having a protector in front of a cow just allows you to have a character without abilities against another character without abilities. For me it is therefore not a counter, because the protector does not allow you to have any kind of advantage.
It is even worse against the illusionist or the grappler, because they have the advantage against the protector. Indeed, the protector does nothing concrete on the board, while a grappler for example, even if he faces a protector, can always jump towards characters, and grapple his allies.
So it's only good to take a protector if you face several of the 4 characters previously mentioned, but just OK against a manipulator or a cow, and bad against only an illusionist or a grappler