1 & 2e there were only a few stats that really mattered. It had little effect on the game if your stat was 10 or 14. Higher stats barely matterd for skills, and mostly it was all for RP purposes.
in 3e everything mattered, but a wider stat range was possible to play. Even if you were a caster with a low stat, you could use spells that did not grant saves. Random was possible but a lot of people moved to point buy.
I think I may have played 2 out of about 10 campaigns with point buy.
If you really needed a higher stat you got a companion to buff you, or bought the necessary item.
In 4e your primary stat effects every single attack. It effects which powers are useful and which are just a waste of an action. Even the your secondary and in some cases teritary stat have an impact. Even worse are the stat requirements for feats. I'm not even tempted to do random generation it could destroy a concept very quickly and give a huge unfair advantage to a lucky roller.
There are worse point buy systems - in HERO every stat is a 10 unless you are going to use it for something that is worth spending points. Important stats have to be strictly regulated to maintain balance, ie everyone has to have a speed of 4-6 and a dex of 21-28, with lower stat characters needing combat levels to make up the difference.
There are also worse random systems. in TMNT you rolled your species, cause of mutation and background/profession. This led to a 33% chance you were a NINJA. The chance of being a turtle was about 3%. comeon.
I still played and enjoyed all of these, despite the flaws.
