Notes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ikzFHpaPk
One of the things that Hollow Earth Expedition (and Ubiquity system at large) did great is that they prevent Painful Average from happening. Spreading 15 points into 15 different skills, along with spreading stat points all across the board, with ZERO focus on anything, still creates a character that can regularly succeed in typical tasks. Sure, they aren't great fighters, they aren't great historians, engineers, actors or whatever... but they don't suck. And the points gained just within a single session are going to be more than enough to gain an edge in a single field.
In fact, the game even goes a step further in case of HEX, as it offers a "Jack of all trades" talent, which seems to be dedicated especially to players that spread their points ultra-thin, as it helps with that sort of build in a great way. So you kinda end up with a "young MacGyver", who still needs to learn a bit about things, but can easily compensate anyway.
But like I've said under different video, that system is actively designed with "prevent characters from sucking due to design faults" in mind.

As for preferences:
My general issue with class-based games is that they lead to ultimate cookie-cutter characters. Every. Single. Character. Of. Given. Class. is going to be the same. It's sickening in the long run, because no matter what, there is zero real flexibility and people end up playing the same characters, too. There is absolutely no variety in a long run, despite subclasses, races coming into play and whatever. Mechanically, it can be interesting, but character-wise and the style of roleplay they kinda-sorta enforce is just endless line of Same McSamey. And this applies to the both sides of the table.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy0RNOiQxu8
I kind of see why this one got delisted
"13th warrior" used to be kind of obligatory watch to people trying their hand at GMing in my country, because it was dealing precisely with that - handling a character that just doesn't fit the campaign and still make the campaign work. On top of that, it's a neat adventure movie, the sort of "wow, this would make a great session!"
And contrary to what this video suggest, a 13th warrior character can be a FANTASTIC addition, as long as two elements are fulfilled:
- the player actually gets into that character, rather than having a "cool" idea they don't use for anything later on
- the GM isn't a dickhead, non-stop punishing the player for "wrong" character, and works with the character concept instead
The reason why it doesn't work is either that the player just had an idea for a character, rather than said character, as weird and unlikely, still being made to fit the overall frame of the game, or that GM ended up being spiteful and acting out on player, mounting obstacles for the sake of it.
And the longer the campaign, the EASIER it is to fit such character, because the game itself will enforce on player to adjust (unless, of course, it's a class-based game, then everyone is screwed)
I guess the name is misleading, too, given that Ahmad (at least in the movie), other than being a poet, is still a good swordsman, as an outsider doesn't have the negative cultural baggage (he doesn't fear the wendol beyond "scary things that come at night", while the vikings have to gripe with the fact that a thing from legend is real and they are apparently truly supernatural), plus his outside-of-box, "nobleman scholar" approach to things works in favour of the whole group. The book would be a better example, because he IS useless there, but then again, the book is him retelling adventures OTHER had, with him just sticking around
Now, I realise this is an old, delisted video, but still worth pointing out.