ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

after many games I'm questioning the need for stat gates for talent levels - stat gates just seem to penalize certain classes and builds, particularly "offspec" builds like mindstar cursed, or caster reaver

if the talent scales with its requirement then the player needs to raise the required stat anyway to make good use of the talent
if the talent doesn't scale with the requirement then the stat threshold makes no sense, the best example I see is the arcane blade's arcane combat tree has a strength gate but nothing in the tree scales with strength

the level requirements are enough to prevent overspecialization and trivializing the early game

Seconded. Not to mention that it encourages some very gamey behavior regarding build choices, especially since players tend to hold out for equipment bonuses to avoid putting points in stats not boosting their primary skills.