I’d like to see all moral absolutism go the way it does in real life. Fail, and hard. I mean, who actually believes they’re a bad guy? Doesn’t just about everyone think they’re the hero? Most villains of history certainly thought they were following the righteous path. This makes the archetypical Paladin just another kind of antagonist. A man of such purity of vision that the world will never measure up to it, so he punishes the world.
As for roleplaying a Paladin, well, what does that even mean? Moral absolutism? Yeah, good luck dealing with anything more complicated than Sauron threatens babies. Blind devotion to a faith? Do you know how hard it would be to really represent that in a game? To really provide that option? It can’t be done, not without building a game around it. Just being a really good guy? Well that shouldn’t be all that hard. Avoid kicking puppies and your set. What actually is a Paladin? Besides a guy in shiny armour.