I understand that you would like this, that, and the other but like I said if you were asked what kind of Jedi would you be, then really there are three choices. Now I will admitt in the first Kotor the skill sets didn't add much to your character, because most options were like, repair robot to kill enemies, hack computer to kill enemies, run in and do it yourself. But this has been something that the designer have time and time again said they were working on to improve, so in a way this hopefully will way in more on initial character development.
Also I played Baldur's gate 1&2 as well and yes the story allowed for a broad range of character and la la la its great, but this is an entirely different type of rpg, and remember the story is not really that great, not even really the other character's stories were all that convincing, Haer'delis and such.