Some sort of stat conversion or balance?

[Royce]

I'm pretty sure weapon damage is only relative to base stats, if you re-spec'ed a 45, with no points allocated they're as weak as a level 1, can anyone confirm this?

I believe you are correct. However, weapon damage does increase with level, sort of, simply because all three primary attributes increase base damage and nobody levels without putting points in something.
Anyway, I gotta say, I feel pretty dang bamboozled concerning this whole "stat-driven" skills thing, that everyone has been anxiously anticipating and as it turns out is nothing but level-scaled skills. People have been talking about it, and based on the limited input from the devs, believed it meant a certain thing. The devs read the forums. They know what everyone was expecting, and it kinda sucks they waited until now to tell everyone the big change they've been waiting for is not to be...