I didn't liked the removal of attributes in the beginning, but I'm more acceptable now.
Attributes didn't really added to much in TES games anyway, there were no clear attribute checks like in Fallout, like you need X strength to open this door or you need X intelligence to understand what this person said. They only contributed to main stats like health, magicka and stamina, while the rest of them only contributed to skills. Higher strength means higher damage, that's the same as a higher weapon skill. Higher speed means you're faster, that's the same as a higher athletics skill. Higher personality means better diplomacy, that's the same as a bonus on speechcraft.
As for the lack of athletics and acrobatics, I'm unsure, but I can see the positive side. I was afraid with no major skills, you would level up way too fast just by running around and jumping, this fixes it. The article also says that the removed skills will return in the form of perks, so hopefully the dodge skill, and higher jumps will be in Skyrim still.
I wouldn't be surprised if races would have some differing static attributes, like Khajiit would be faster than a Nord, but a Nord could do higher damage with melee weapons.
At least now you won't go around throwing yourself off of tall buildings to level up your athletics. So long as there is a perk for higher jumping, I'll be happy.
In general, I'm quite optimistic about the new approach to character builds. I don't doubt that Skyrim will have problems, but I bet they'll be things nobody's thought of yet.
Also: someone (sorry, forgot your name) said that they were worried about the stamina/magicka/health choice ruining their fighter/mage build. I wouldn't worry too much: remember that a spellsword type character had to buff more attributes when leveling up, so this won't be a huge change. As someone who prefers 'multi-class' characters (see my avatar), I really like the sound spell runes, slowing ice spells, etc.- looks like spellswords, nightblades etc. will have more tactical options, which is better than a statistical buff anyway.
[edit: regarding attributes themselves: they are a bit lame. Attributes provide you with LESS choice, since your character is shoehorned into someone else's stereotype. Who says that my mage can't use a sword if he trains with it? Plenty of monks practiced sword-fighting. Why on earth should my ability to jump be related to my ability to avoid getting hit in combat? These are arbitrary generic stereotypes, and we would not swallow them so easily if we hadn't grown up on games that use them.]
» Mon May 02, 2011 11:09 pm 
