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I think the concept of allowing complex and "crunchy" characters to run alongside simpler and more straightforward characters (thus enabling multiple play style "feels" at once) by packaging their abilities differently from tier to tier is great, and I hope something like it is implemented in D&D Next.

And I think it's a concept that could be applied to other games too (and has been to some extent, though it wasn't necessarily spelled out as being that). For example, the concept of Core, Expanded, and Advanced engines could be easily applied to Hero as well. A Core character in Fantasy Hero might pick a Racial Template, a Cultural Template, and a Professional Template, and those templates would be very specific, with relatively few options within them left up to the player). An Expanded character might still take each of those Templates, but they'd be slightly less broad (more like they're presented in FH), with more room for the player to differentiate their character from others with the same Templates. An Advanced character might have only very general Templates, or even no Templates at all (beyond perhaps a Racial Template).

It's definitely a sound-seeming approach to offering different levels of complexity to players with different play experience levels, or players who desire different experiences from their games, but keeping everything under the same umbrella... :)