This, in fact, is my greatest bit with new school gamers, and I think it is one that White Wolf really fostered with the best of intentions. Hell, I would have done the same thing as them, given the opportunity that they had. They aimed to emphasize the esoteric aspects of the role-playing game, in an attempt to avoid dungeon crawls and the like. This did some good, and probably, mercifully killed a few really bad games of Vampire. Where they made their mistake was thinking that role-playing was a point instead of a spectrum.
Nobody just starts role-playing, it takes a while to get good.
Okay, there are prodigies out there, but let us talk about the mainstay rather than the exceptions. Not easy work, my friends, not as easy as it gets when you get used to the idea. As I said, character is a spectrum. We start off pretty deep in the rule's end, in the real basic stereotypes section. Maybe not good character, but character nonetheless.