Someone brought up an interesting thought in another thread, the idea that a possible solution to keep players from shutting down their options is to allow them to "save" their skill points from character creation, not spend them all right away.
It seems that relatively few games take this tactic, and tend to demand that when you make a 100 point character, or have a character with 8+INT skill points, you have to use all 100 points or the full 8+INT before you start to play the character.
Why is that? I mean, it seems a pretty clever option to me, the idea you can "bank" points. Is it mostly a metagame thing, that it doesn't feel "realistic" or something that someone could suddenly develop a talent in a skill they didn't use to have?
It's definitely an advantage to do so compared to having to commit your points ahead of time. There are some games that allow you to defer design decisions in order to approximate something that happens in the genre/setting.
For example, DC Heroes in the olden days let gadgeteers make "omni gadgets", which you decide what power it has at the time you use it. It's a one shot affair, which made it pretty expensive compared to "known" gadgets. This was a way of emulating things such as batman's utility belt where he just happens to have something appropriate to the situation at the time.
Spycraft has a similar option with reserve common items and gear picks. They don't cost any more picks, but you have to make a gear check to get them. In the case of common items, it represents the classical "just happen to have" sort of situation. In the case of gear picks, it's more like fedex delivery. In either case, the number of these checks you have available depends on your wisdom bonus, which makes the stat more meaningful.
More along the lines of what you were talking about, also in Spycraft, there is a feat called "I Can Swim". Basically, it lets you defer the skill point allotment until play. This represents the sort of character who always knows something appropriate.
In these cases, though, it's more a matter of "genre emulation" than a "design in play" philosophy. Still, that might fit the bill of what you are looking for.