The problem with not being able to repair even after a certain point is that any time you miss repairing an item before crossing the invisible, never-disclosed line where you can suddenly repair on one side, and on the other you can't, you're forced to find an NPC and pony up cash anyway, which makes taking Repair yourself basically pointless. You are punished, where instead taking points in Repair should be a benefit.
I disagree. You're not being punished for taking the Repair skill. You're being punished for not keeping an eye on the status of your gear. If you neglect the condition of your equipment, you're going to run into big problems whether you have skill points placed in Repair or not.
Repair is a SECONDARY SKILL, not a primary one, and players who take it should not be forced to pump it as if it was a primary skill.
You keep saying this, but I'm not really sure what you mean by it. If you're saying a skill like Repair isn't the same as skill like "Water Elementalist" or "Shield Specialist", sure. But skills like Repair, Crafting, Reason, Sneaking, etc aren't automatically supposed to be pointless just because they're not "primary" skills. I would say Larian Studios has intentionally gone to great lengths to make sure that actually isn't the case.
You should feel no more forced to pick up Repair than you should to pick up Pickpocketing, Loremaster, or magic in general. However, that doesn't mean you should expect to be able to invest 1 point into a skill-line and have all your troubles wash away. Now, having 1 point in Repair *can* be effective under the system I suggested *if* you are diligent about repairing. If you want to be more casual about it, you need to invest more heavily in the skill, OR, not take the skill at all and rely on NPCs (the more expensive route).
The main thing wrong with the entire Repair mechanic is that durability loss is permanent, and that's really what needs to change. Permanent durability loss makes me want to put my best gear away in a vault until it's absolutely necessary to drag it out and damage it, and instead spend the majority of my adventure wearing disposable equipment I don't care about. That's not how players should be made to feel.
