[Gudiomen]

First of all, I agree with the point you are making. Though, many here have already come to this realization. Offcourse utility varies with setting/campaign/GM/player/character. And rarity is utility to a point, because if you do something unexpected, or your powers aren't commonly countered, then you have more "umph" for your ability.

Having said that, I see nothing wrong with GURPS pricing things the way it does. I thas attempted to filter out some of the rarity factor from the point cost (for instance, Ambidexterity) and leave it at actual game value. Now, before you say "fnord!"... consider averages and majority. A commercial gaming system has to base it's standards and general rules on what is most common, or at least on what they can calculate as most common. In most games where there is a multiverse of worlds, Jumper is going to be worth a lot of points, unless all the other worlds are virtually useless, but that would be the exception. When you decide to do a system based on points, you need to use some reference. And SJGames does playtest, and self-relative point costs to determine this. "Self-relative" cause, most of the traits have more or less adequate cost relative to other traits in the system. GURPS is a wonderfull system, and one of the best attempts at putting rules in roleplaying that I have ever seen, but it's really just a base for your games. If you want to take the system "as is" and apply it to your game world, you have to understand that there will be certain occasions that the point value will be weird. Or positively upside down.

The issue that points are not equal to "real" value, and that rarity should or should not be included, etc... has been discussed over and over again. I really don't see what SJGames could do about it... I mean, how would you do a generic system with lists for point costs in infinite (or even several) settings/styles. The books are giant lists of traits and costs already!