I\'ve kinda come to this thread late, but I must say I like WSIMike\'s idea of specialisation - I mean, no matter hard someone trains, they won\'t be able to lift a house, since more training usually results in diminishing returns. Likewise, most people who have mastered a skill have mastered a very specific subset of that skill. I think that by having a branching skill system, there is a lot of potential for the developers to provide content which keeps people interested in playing.
As for racial stats caps, I think they make sense for the most part, although I don\'t think you should necessarily choose your race to maximise your desired class - that leads to a lack of diversity and the whole \"powerleveling\" grind. I believe, however, that no character should ever quite reach the racial statistics cap, since that represents the maximum possible ability level of that race.