Quote Originally Posted by Thrudd View Post
The point is, the DMG explicitly gave the DM permission to ignore the rules in order to give players what they want. Usually, games don't say "these are the rules...but it's ok to break them sometimes." That's a feature of D&D, and it has been that way since the earliest editions. AD&D wasn't telling DMs to restrict players. It was presenting a game which, by default, was restrictive, and advised DM's to ignore those rules if they think it won't be fun for their players. As of the time WotC took over, it was apparent that many people had, in fact, decided to ignore those restrictive rules in their games...therefore, they made things a lot less restrictive. Even as of the 1e Unearthed Arcana, it was apparent that many players didn't like the restrictions and Gygax gave optional rules for stat generation that would help players get the class they want much more reliably (while still retaining some randomness).
Also, restrictions on characters was done presuming a more open-table style game. Sure, you couldn't have a ranger with this character, but maybe next one.

Much like character death, there's a big difference between being restricted with "one of many" vs. "your only character for the foreseeable future".