I think I have hit a few nerves in here about this issue...
Possibly.
No.
The misconception that 3E is more restrictive than AD&D came about primarily because of a misinterpretation of what "old-school" meant.
We're very lucky to have someone to explain to us what most of us actually experienced first-hand. Damn unreliable human perception/memory! For extra credit, can you explain where I was on and around the weekend of July the 4th, 1984? I believe that was when I first discovered cheap Scotch, in my friend's basement, but my memories are a little sketchy.
People like to lump "old-school" with AD&D, when this is fundamentally wrong.
I lump 2e in with old school, too. Can you explain to me how that's incorrect using your marvelous powers of 2nd and 3rd hand observation? I dare you!
As
Matthew Finch points out, Old School meant 0E.
I'll wager even Matt Finch doesn't consider himself the sole authority on "old-school D&D". You can ask him yourself. He posts around here. Or you can wait a few years and
then read what some other people were saying about the subject on the Internet.
I've taken many of your arguments into consideration, but I still don't see it.
Keep trying!
To deny this is to simply not understand the history of Dungeons and Dragons and it's evolution over the years.
Which, by your admission, you didn't witness. You wouldn't happen to be pulling our (collective) legs with the thread, would you?
Note: I'm not trying to knock your new-found love of AD&D. But I am curious as to why you believe your lack of experience with the game gives you special insight into its nature and history. I mean, to do a proper job of summarizing the "nature" of AD&D, you needs a lot more than a few pull-quotes and Wikipedia links. You need to read through not only the various rule-and-source books, but the modules, too, which grant valuable insight into how the the system was meant to work in play, and then, most importantly, you'd need to interview people who actually
played the game back then, the real primary sources... you know... the stuff you're dismissing as irrelevant.
You'd happen to be a Prescriptivist, would you?