Because WotC was stepping lightly when they made 3rd Edition,
No they weren't.
They were curb-stomping established rules left and right with gratuitous glee when the made "3E".
They simply weren't as stupid as they were when they made "4E" to call all of their existing players drooling idiots who were too moronic to realize they hadn't been playing the game right for 8 years. (Not to mention letting them know they were sick of said players being a bunch of fat, pimply, nerdy, geek stereotypes who were making the corporate bigshots upset when they saw pictures from the recent in-house convention.)
and feats were a great idea but they didn't want to turn off the 2E grognards who would be utterly upset that something that they don't have to pay for with already meager options (NWP) was so much better than what came before (NWP).
Which might be true if:
1. Feats were particularly more abundant than NWP ever were. Which . . . they weren't. You got a NWP every 3 or 4 levels in 2E, depending on your character class.
2. Feats were only equivalent to NWP. Which . . . they weren't. There were all sorts of variant weapon proficiencies that foreshadowed a slew of "3E" feats, including some of the weapons style feats. Mind you, things like Blind-Fighting, Endurance, and Tracking were still NWP, which confused things even more.
3. There weren't additional options, like Traits in Skills and Powers, that were even more like proto-feats. Which . . . there were.
The only real functional differences with "3E" and feats to a slew of 2E options was the presentation. Mechanically, the concept was in 2E, and BECMI, long before "3E" ever got started.
What is a more likely reason for the slew of sucktastic feats is the pretentiousness of "system mastery" that was a core design element of the "3E" project, which was openly stated as the game was released.
Players were supposed to "learn" which feats were worthwhile and which were simply traps and adapt and evolve their character design and play accordingly.
This was of course a monumental failure for too many reasons, but because the system was abandoned for "4E" rather than revised to remove the "system mastery" requirement, the useless feats remain.
