Yeah attributes and skills aren't really all that different. In one game you might have a constitution attribute that raises your hp. In another game you might have a toughness skill that does the same thing. In one game you might have a strength attribute for damage, and in another game a sword mastery skill might have the same effect.

I generally found the early attribute based games to be far more simplistic. If you were a fighter you put your points in strength. If you were a mage you put them into intelligence. It wasn't exactly rocket science and you generally had 0 customization options beyond that.