An alternate way of looking at stats

[genshou]

Good point. Being able to qualify for certain Feats - and then attaining those Feats - would make a character feel proud of herself.

Indeed it does! Combat Expertise from D&D and Burst Fire from d20 Modern are both feats which require an ability of 13 in a score not crucial to the class most likely to take them. Thus, a fighter with a 13 Int has a serious advantage where defense is concerned. That doesn't mean there aren't heroes out there with a 14+ Int to make that 13 seem "less special" compared to other adventurers but as Goolpsy explained, the heroes are already the exceptional ones in the world. It's very rare to see people in the world with scores a "5d6, drop 2 lowest" would typically generate, but we are out there. The trick is to get your players in the right mindset about what those ability scores mean, not to change the rules on how they function in the mechanics. If you find ways to show your players that they are something beyond the norm even with a 12, hopefully they'll learn to look at their ability scores from less of a number-crunching perspective and from more of an imaginative perspective.