Yeah, in the original Fallouts, the stats actually mattered. You couldn't funciton with AGL at 1, or INT at 1. Now... no big deal. The new games cater to the lowest common denominator and hold the player's hand a bit too much. The stats affected more than just derived stats and starting skills.
I mean, people are complaining about not having a perk every level... In FO:1, you got a perk every 3, and capped at 7 total. sigh...
I personally set AGL very high, but it's mostly a holdover from the original games. Same thing goes with perception, as with ED-E it is basically useless and might as well be set at 1. Honestly, the stat system could be removed from the games and just focused on the skills (it's only a step away).
Wasteland: While the stat system of Fallout 1 and 2 was good, because you couldn't afford poor stats(minus INT, because those are good times) however it just doesn't work out. If I am making an unarmed Bar Brawler type of character, why do I need Intelligence, Charisma or Luck if I don't want to? What if I want to focus on Strength, Endurance and Agility? It allows us to specialize, rather than have evenly distributed characters while putting a few points ahead. It allows for more "pure builds".