EQ Never

Flexible Stat System (UO modified)
I like the idea of working in a finite space to get the most out of a character. Having a hard limit on the total amount of stats like UO forces players to pick and chose what is important to their build.

I however don't like the grinding aspect of stat increases. You should get a few stat points as you gain experience and they should increase the stat of your choosing instantly. I like your earning respec points idea. A player can choose to divert earned experience towards a respec point. Each respec point takes the same amount of exp to acquire where new stat points will require more and more experience. So a player slowly accumulates a larger pool of stats to work with, but takes time to mold and shape them into exactly what they want. Also, allow players to bank a small pool of respec points.

So what would stats do?
Stats determine skill effectiveness.
Stats increase resource pool amounts.
Stats determine how effective each of the ways a character interacts with the world are. Each method of interaction would have a governing skill. Jumping, running, swimming, talking, bribing, bartering, brawling, wearing armor, swinging weapons ect. Each skill gets an increase or is multiplied by a governing stat or stats. So simply by increasing stats and nothing else, a character will become better at many different things.

However, not all skills are available to a character right away, and skills can increase in rank through use, making them even better than what increasing their parent stat would do alone. Which brings up the next point.

Experience Types and how leveling up would work
So experience comes in two flavors. Stat experience and Skill experience.

Stat experience accumulates whenever you take some sort of successful action in the game. Doesn't have to be combat related. The list of things that add to stat points would be numerous and closely follow all of the areas covered by player skills. So if there are combat skills, kills in combat earn stat experience. If there are political and trade skills, successful dealings and trades also earn experience. The amount each action awards would attempt to normalize the effort of the player. So the rate of reward per amount of time invested would hopefully be the same.

Essentially it would become like the cert system in Planetside 2. You just do your thing and every so often you get a point. Or, this stat experience can be turned around and used to earn a respec point in order to rework a stat. The amount of experience needed to earn a respec point would generally be less than the amount needed to earn an additional point.

Skill experience is earned on a per skill basis. Use a skill, that skill gains experience and eventually ranks up. More advanced skills will require pre-requisite levels of a basic skills. There are no skill points to assign, but most skills must be gained from a trainer before they can be used or rank up. Skills do not decay, once you learn something it sticks with you. However stats determine skill effectiveness. So even if you knew every skill in the game at max rank, you would only be able to be good at some of them due to the limited nature of the stat point pool.

So, increase stats that bolster your chosen skills. Use your, now more effective, skills to gain more stat experience AND rank up your skill. Spend new stat points and train more advanced skills. Repeat.

How does gear factor in?

The gear a character uses determines what skills can be used for most combat abilities. You can't backstab without a dagger, you can't attempt a snipe shot without a bow, Wands and staffs increase the casting characteristics of a spell. A wand can lower cast time, A staff add an aoe effect, or create multiple projectiles, a focus item could regen resources with every cast, ect. Armor increases survival but interferes with most acrobatic and movement type skills. There are no stats on the gear, the gear simply acts as a focus for the skills and modifies how they behave.

That's not to say gear wouldn't have attributes to consider. What an item did and what skills could be used with it would be the most important. However, the material the item was constructed from, it's weight, it's effectiveness (AC, Damage ect.) would all have to be considered as well. It's just the vast majority of items would essentially be white quality, non magical stuff. It would still have degrees of quality.

Magical items on the other hand, would have special powers all their own. A bow that requires no arrows, or a cloak that causes the wearer to shadowstep away if they sheath their weapon (with a hefty cooldown or use per day). That sort of stuff.

So, stats modify skills effectiveness/ power. Gear modifies skills behavior. Magic items add new abilities to the mix. If any stats were to wind up on gear, it would have to be something really special and would be limited to a small increase of a few points. Maybe only jewelry can have stat modifiers, or something like that.