With Lone wolf you still get no more than 5 skills per character. Dude, stop grasping at straws....there is nothing you can say in the defense of the broke-ass leveling system this game has.
How about "you don't need rank 5 in every skill in order for them to be effective?" Because to me, 49 ability points is at least 5 abilities, sometimes more... and I can't even think of a build where I'd want rank 5 on three different abilities, since rank 4 or less would suffice for one of them.