What are they thinking at Paizo?
I'll tell you what they were thinking.
They wanted the maximum number of options without actually empowering the player to meaningfully change the strengths and weaknesses of the character. This is the game you will want to use if you are into illusion of choice, as opposed to actual choice.
Every time Paizo spots how they can
not give out a power or ability fully, they do so, thus creating "design space" for a slew of feats that does complete the power or ability. And this happens not dozens of times, and not hundreds of times, but thousands of times, over and over, in every area of the game. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to find
any aspect of character creation where abilities haven't been chopped up in the most minute (and meaningless) chunks imaginable.
The end result? A game with thousand upon thousands
upon thousands upon thousands of feats or "choices", nearly none of which make the slightest difference in of themselves. (Hint: getting a +1 is not character defining. Getting a +1 to a particular ability usable only in a special case is a slap in the face. Prepare to get very red in the face if you play PF2!) PF2 is a game where you make a decision to create a character that can do
something, and then you just have to figure out the configuration of niggling little design tweaks that enable to pull off
that something without tripping up on the myriad of restrictions, limitations and other niggly rulesy things.
Now cue a number of Paizo defenders, who in their eagerness to defend the game will only inadvertently reveal how in their games they overlook or plain old ignore some or all of the game's rules and limitations, thus unwittingly proving my point.