Theory crafting skill trees

[WhimsicalPacifist]

I am reminded of LoTRO which implemented skill trees, balanced poorly and hemorrhaged players like a bloody park fountain. In 2013 with the conversion to skill trees Warden got dumpster tiered for tanking which was its main role (still is in the dumpster) and still has broken traits across all sections of the trees.

The problem with a skill tree is the illusion of choice; there always is an upper end optimal configuration that content and job balance is measured by. Does the skill tree have "filler" talents? Do they scale with level? How do you gate the capstones, ie are there any garbage filler talents to get to them?

Do you allow traiting across the skill trees? You balanced it around this level cap right? What happens when several expansions go by and you start having more impactful dual/hybrid specs that might even get two capstones? (sometimes encountered fairly early on like SWTOR Shadow tank/DPS hybrids on its launch that ignored capstones and got hammered).