It is a willful choice to appeal more to the casual gamer. Personally, I find the new level up system to be boring. There just aren't any choices or trade-offs. Picking the expensive but good skill vs the cheap but less good skill was fun. The planning was fun. The optimization was fun. Now... I don't know.
The thing is... I don't think that the cult audience surrounding Spiderweb games is really a casual gaming audience. We prefer the "old school" rpg, and that is why we are here instead of playing something like Fable. If the focus shifts away from its niche, the games start to compete with mainstream games, and that is not a winning battle. I understand that a niche is not necessarily where a game wants to be, but I am here for the niche. I wish that Spiderweb RPGs would stick to their roots.