I like making choices. I like the finality of choice because it is (for me) what creates some kind of identiy and therefore is a very important feature in rpgs. But also having some interchangeable features can be quite fun.
Nobody of the death-to-respec people seems to be concerned about the fact that you could respec your gear in BG2 anytime you want (exactly like skills in D3) and this was a really cool thing, because it added some tactics and freedom to the game. Gear is a big part of character customization and its usually completely interchangeable. Think of the anti-undead mace you found during the second Bodhi encounter, the fireweapons against trolls, the club/mace thing with golems and the anti-mindflayer sword found during the events of TOB.
Another example is the system of memorizing spells in BG2. The priest, wizard or druid could choose before each rest a couple of spells they wanted to use. This system of memorizing was indeed a form of "respec". And it was great! If an encounter was really hard, I thought a lot about which spells it would be best to choose. Maybe some AOE dmg fireball? Or rather mass confusion? Maybe it would be better to cast invisibility on every character? Or protection against evil and open some gate to hell?
So these were both core features of BG2 that I liked a lot. And therefore my question:
Why not add a couple of skills to each class that you can change from time to time (visit tronghold, take rest)?
This is a great way to add tactical complexity to the game, because people have to think about possible combinations to solve harder encounters. Also I don't think it would destroy roleplay, if there were enough other decions (race, gender, class, a couple of combat talents, tradeskills) that are final.
If you don't like that idea, please point out why that is something different of the examples shown above.
[sorry for all the editing =)]