Alas Poor Yorick, it doesn't hurt me a bit.
It does, you went through all the trouble of maxing every stat even though ostensibly you're not using them all in character. Why did you do that? Was it like Mt. Everest, because they were there? Or was it because everyone else does it so you have to in order to be competitive? And now you're just like they are, defeating the purpose of attributes in the first place (as a measure of one person's ability vs. another's). That's a pretty big disconnect between how these systems are intended to function and how they are being used.
Many of the recent Olympians and national champions actually DO have master or doctorate degrees in the computer, physical and biological sciences. It IS possible to have both intelligence and physical prowess. It's just not universal. And if you look at the broad range of players in the game.. it's not universal there to see characters who do both magics and melee.
The easy answer is somewhere there's another person who is better at computers and physical or biological sciences than the Judo guy. Even if that's not true in real life, it needs to be in a role playing game for niche protection. No one is saying you can't do both, what we're saying, or at least what I'm saying, is that the top of one field should not be at the top of the other simultaneously (unless they are related). So Tesla should not mix with Miyamoto Musashi to make super intelligent unstoppable guy. In game terms, you shouldn't be able to max both and still be just as good as any guy who maxed one. Otherwise, why would anyone only max one?
Secondly, I'm one of those players trying to gain high stats if not maxed in everything. ... And it's not hurting someone else by me sitting in a wilderness training, anymore than it hurts mine by someone sitting at a furnace.
Fine, go forth. But the game should not allow you to max every ability and skill. If the goal of the game is to max every stat, then all characters will have basically the same progress and same result, only the RP is different. If that is the case, why pretend there's any differentiation in skills and stats to make them unique? Just drop that abstraction and compare something more general such as using base level as the true measure of your progress. Once you hit max in everything all chars are the same anyhow.
If you insist upon imposing restrictions like this, you will run players off to other games, where they can grind to their heart's content, without people whining about it. And it won't just be the PLers who leave, it will be the people who choose to explore every side of the game, but find some of them summarily closed to them.
That's why no one plays WOW for example, because it's too balanced (by the way, I've never played WOW but people seem to like it).
Imposing restrictions like this hinders character development over time. It means whatever path you start on, you have to finish.
No it doesn't, it just means you can't be all things at all times. You could allow plenty of flexibility to allow a career change. It could warn you that if you choose to train X then your skills in Y might degenerate for example. Ultimately, the way you like it just doesn't make sense from a game theory perspective, sorry to be the bearer of bad news.