I see what you're saying, but I think we need to do something to give players an incentive to invest more than 1-3 points in the new "skill" abilities (I think that's what you mean when you say "Way of the...," since those old abilities no longer exist?). If the most powerful skills can be learned regardless of the level of the related ability, there's not much point to the ability. That's why I thought the ability should again govern the "level" of skill that can be learned - BUT the actual power of the skill will be governed by other stats. So, it would be significantly different than the old system, where you could simply pump an ability to level 5 and be mostly done.
That said, I see you agree the abilities need to have other "bonuses" attached beyond simply allowing more skills to be active at one time. Do you have some ideas for that? I know Larian has also said they want to do more with the new abilities, but are apparently still considering exactly what.