<{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Where did you dig up that old post anyway... :">
The problem lies within two things, one being temptation. It is connected to another, being half the game/plot being stowed away on the ominously slender branches of Kreia's conversation tree. See? Why do I need Kreia's influence anyway? Well, in order to fully enjoy or even understand the game. We all know how unfulfilling this game threatens to be anyway, and giving Kreia limited on-screen time will not help that fact. I'm not a powergamer, I just want the story to be told in an adequately satisfactory manner, not force me to fill in the gaps because I already played it through a couple of times.
My main gripe with the influence system, however, is how it was implemented. As someone mentioned above, the influence didn't matter character wise. Like I've said a billion times on this forum, when you play DS and send Handmaiden (with low influence because she's a Nice Girl) to the Freedon Nadd tomb, you have the option of letting her embrace the dark side. Meanwhile your evil Exile kicks Kavar's butt in Iziz, and upon returning to Dxun he meets up with Handy. She says something along the lines of "I was so worried about you!" (yeah, really DS), only to go stone cold again after that conversation. She is still as LS as she'll ever be. That is bad writing. In a good story she would have said "I understand your point of view now, Master" or "You die. Now.". But that whole turn-your-tomb-party-leader-to-the-dark-side was just another unfinished piece of the plot left dangling.
Interestingly, that's exactly how my first KotOR playthrough played out! (only I never quite reached mastery on either end of the scale)