In all serious, it's what you might call a "light cruiser", isn't it? It's designed for short haul trips. I suspect the mission to 'retrieve' the Maquis was about the limit of the type of thing Starfleet expects of the Intrepid class, and Voyager were expecting to be back at DS9 refuelling a day or two later.
The only other Intrepid we ever saw was ferrying dignitaries from one place to another in an episode of Deep Space Nine. Again, not exactly the most taxing of missions, but those sorts of short hops were probably what the ship was designed for. Larger than a Defiant, but smaller than most other 24th century Starfleet vessels.