When we changed the trees from each tree only unlocking tiers within itself, to the side-by-side approach where points in any tree would unlock the entire next tier in all trees, we could obviously then get rid (merge) a lot of the passive skills. So we then don't need that many skills, don't need as many spaces, and the trees shrink in size. Nothing was lost, just that the redundant passive skills were removed. Nothing to worry about, the number of actual active skills is the same.

edit: It should be noted that the Monk and Barbarian obviously don't have the same amount of skills shown, but the OP was referring to the number of places skills could exist. The actual size of the trees.

Am I misunderstanding Bashiok?

The way he says it makes it seem like no skills have been lost, but he says skills have been merged and taken out. Maybe to him passive skills aren't considered skills? All i know is that the more skills, boring or not, the better.

It kind of seems like a ton of different options would be good, I know, but more options doesn't actually mean more customization. Sometimes it can mean less.

We want to make each skill, passive or active, as sexy as possible. Doing that means making each one useful and desirable in their own way. They don't overlap, their use and appeal is specific and easily understood. Maybe not to every player all the time, there still need to be specific appeals to what a player wants their character to play like, but a bunch of filler would only create an illusion of options.

What would happen is there would be a few paths to take that avoided the skills that just aren't that great, and so essentially all that filler might as well not exist. These are Diablo skill trees, every skill you use comes from spending points, we don't want to weigh the whole thing down with a bunch of passives.

There is such a thing as complexity through simplicity and I think that's something we strive for in all areas of the game.

and if there isn't many and you can max them all out, then there goes the idea of having multiple builds.

Being able to max out every active skill or even coming close would defeat an enormously huge portion of character build customization. That won't be the case. You could essentially be a jack of all trades of course, a point or two in everything, but High Heavens forbid you meet up against someone who has built themselves to specialize in a few key abilities.

I wish they would finalize a skill system so i could be at ease lol. I want to know that the skill system is deep, and that respecs wont be overused. Once that day comes, i will be 100 percent sure Diablo III will be amazing.

Hah, me too, but it keeps getting better so I'm wouldn't want it to be rushed. Character customization as a whole will be deep, and it's many systems working in concert. The skill system of course being the backbone. And respecs are intended to be pretty rare/valuable.