Gladius Legis said:3e was about the illusion of choice. If you have 1000 possible combinations, but 995 of them are unplayable, then that is the illusion of choice. And that is exactly how 3e played out. 3e didn't know whether it wanted to be a classless or class-based system, and that was its failing.
I agree completely with this.
The 4e multiclassing feats give you everything from a class that you couldn't get through other feats (skills, weapons, and armor), while keeping class archetypes stable.