It could be as simple as offering an extra level of depth for the 'by the attributes' method of character description & development that I saw and loved in the AD&D 2e PHB, that laid out how a character with a 7 in one attribute isn't necessarily 'gimped', but rather presents a roleplaying challenge.
Pathfinder, though, like 3e before it, lends itself much better to min/maxing than the older editions, and this presents a shift in the character creation paradigm. Before, you were rolling 3d6 6 times, filling in the attributes -in order-, and only after you were done did you know what potential your character had, and that was -exciting-! Nowadays, having a few more total attribute bonuses than your fellow party members can, in the hands of a dedicated min/maxer, make that character unquestionably superior. To address this problem, point-buy is the rule of the day, and rolling for stats is a thing of the past.
4/5ths of my party is comprised of gamers of the old school, 2 of which haven't played 3e, much less Pathfinder, and already they're railing against the bewildering array of character creation options, remembering when things were simple, when you merely had to subtract your enemy's AC score from your THAC0, then subtract your total attack bonus, and...hey, wait a minute...