Interesting. I vastly prefer LBD and have always hated "kill 20 orcs to improve your lockpicking". Different strokes yo.
I hate LBD. Due to the nature of it you always end up with specialized characters and hybrids are nearly always penalized. Want to use a bit of magic with your melee build? Well, hope you're happy being able to light candles while slaying gods with your melee weapon.
The alternative has, in my experience, always allowed for more and better build variety (especially when barriers like classes are used). Why did you get better at lock picking by killing 20 orcs? Well your character was studying lock-picking around the campfire, or was able to buy better study material from their loot. Table-top RPG's explain away 'leveling up' like that all the time.