Actually, no, that's true at all. My complaint is that it's easier to get an 18 in one stat and 14 in two others than an 18 in two stats and a 14 in another (or two more). I don't think anyone has disagreed / will disagree with that.
Jhaelen: I understand what you're saying, but I still think that more options > fewer options.
That's irrelevant for anything past the first couple of levels. To remain at a competitive level over the course of the campaign it's usually best to just pick two stats and raise those at every one of the "+1 to two stats" levels. If you're doing that, then you'll always have a third stat that's lagging behind, no matter what it started at.
For example, my Axe-wielding Dragonborn Fighter has an 18/16/12/10/12/10 (not quite so easy to get that second 18 when it's not a boosted stat) for his stats. Assuming I pump STR and CON every level I'll have 26/24/14/12/14/12 by 28th level. So at that point, would it make a lot of sense to suddenly switch to a Longsword and retrain Skullcrusher for Fangs of Steel? Of course not!
Now, lets say I wanted to go with Scale or Shield Specialization at Paragon level...which is something I've actually thought about doing. That would mean that I would need a 15 DEX (impossible if I raise CON at every opportunity) and I would need to shift my scores a bit. I could pump DEX during the Heroic tier and no touch CON until 14th level and then pump it from that point on. This would get me a 26/22/16/12/14/12 for my stats. So while I'll now have Scale or Shield Spec, I've done so at the cost of decreased effectiveness with my CON based abilities. I'll be giving up a hit point, a healing surge, a point of damage off my Dragonbreath powers, a point of to-hit from Dragon Blast (I plan on taking the Inner Dragon PP) as well as a point of extra damage from any of my powers that add additional damage equal to my CON mod when using certain weapons.
So yes, what you said is true in that for some races it's hard to get two 18's, but it's not impossible. Races like the Elf they can get two 18's in stats useful to their class by picking Ranger, then putting a 16 into DEX and WIS and you'll have an 18 in your primary and secondary stat. Same with an Eladrin Wand Wizard or a Tiefling Fey Pact Warlock. Is this the norm though? Certainly not. Additionally, can you keep up that stat spread? Only at the sacrifice of higher level play ability. Otherwise, you'll be pumping those two 18's and leaving that 14 behind to eventually become a 16 at the Epic tier. So yes, you can get two 18's with certain race/class/build options and at 1st level. After that though, the math just doesn't add up. One stat
will drop off, and this may bar you from taking certain feats and make certain powers sub-optimal to take for that character.
Granted, the melee Cleric and the STR Pally will have the problem a little earlier, but this isn't a big deal. They can each either put their points into the two primary stats and forgo secondary effects, or they can pick one and then usually only have to worry about a single secondary stat. So instead of being like a Fighter where you have STR as the primary, and then CON, DEX and WIS as possible secondary/tertiary stats, you can just have a STR/WIS Pally or STR/CHA Pally and put a few points in the single odd ability as your secondary stat. It's much easier to juggle in some ways due to that fact.
For example, you could use a Dragonborn to make a STR/CHA Pally with 18's in each stat and a 14 in WIS for two Lay on Hands per day. Then just pump STR and CHA every level and you'll have at least a +2 for secondary effects...so you
can get that elusive 18/18/14 with at least one of the dual stat classes.