By the end the PC is not just a jack of all trades, but a master of all trades.
Agreed, that has to go. Your character by the end (and through out the entire game) should have their own unique way of dealing with things. That was kind of my thought behind my original suggestion actually. That the speech skill has become such a general skill that you can take it and forsake development of other skills like medicine, barter, etc. My original thought was that you become specialized in certain things and that opens some doors but leaves others closed. I don't feel that a single character build should get to do everything. That's why I think pairing speech with other skills or even attributes to pass some tests would be a good solution too.
OT - I'm not willing to let Speech as a skill go, however, if it does indeed go. I would still like to get the skill checks. By that I mean Guns 44/50, Medicine 75/80, etc.
Agreed 100%. Actually, I had clarified earlier that I was not talking about removing skill checks. In fact, it's because of the diverse skill checks in NV, that I think removing Speech is possible.
And to be clear to everyone, I don't want a simpler game. I'm not opposed to adding other skills either. However, I am for changes that makes the game experience more specific to the character build, which I'm sure is a shared view here.