There has always been a fine balance to the art of making a character sheet that is relevant and pertinent in its entirety to a roleplay. The gist of where this stems from and why I believe it continues other than purely for the sake of tradition is so that the Game Master [i]knows[/i] just who a character is and is being submitted to the group, although some details offer nothing and as you noted, are effectively selling short the entire idea of a written system; even outside writing, an abroad the rule is "Show, do not tell." However, characters need to pass muster to some extent and some of these elements are critical to this accomplishment. Now comes the issue of where this becomes in excess, such as date of birth, sexuality, or favorite color, which unless absolutely plot relevant for checking off a box that must be known, are superfluous additions.

I, for one, would absolutely not, in any sense, allow a roleplay as a Game Master where players did not submit to the most basic of inquiries. This is because I view it as quality control; there are certain persons and character types that are disruptive and negative to the game and story I am directing. If I am the one to host it and have leapt through all the hoops to facilitate that, as so few people wish to lead the narrative by and large, I reserve the right to say, "That character does not belong here." Now of course a player could absolutely bamboozle a Game Master but that is the reason the Game Master has added powers and authority, and should those fail, moderators and administrators have greater exercise.

Yet this does not negate the fact that a character sheet is the first and potentially most important hurtle for players and characters alike to step through, although there is one element of them that is highly controversial that I standby with stalwart resolve; psychological profiles. I absolutely believe it is essential in the meta to have an idea of who this character is and not cast it solely to chance, because as many of us, especially us older members of the genre have almost assuredly experienced, a character with zero insight as to who they are or what they do is an absolute wild card and exceedingly bad characters like to sneak in that way. This also goes hand in hand with the matter that players [i]should[/i], at least in my standing, be required to submit a roleplaying sample; the general idea is that anything "claimed" should be clear in the writing and portrayal. The reason this is often cast aside is that players are fickle and the more expectations set out, the less willing most are to participate for obvious reasons. These reasons are that character sheets are realistically costly in time investiture and creative energy derived from the mind, thus as people generally only have so much time to spend on a roleplay and so much creative power, they must choose, especially when the vast, vast, vast majority of roleplays fall through.

Continued, albeit in different vein but related all the same, players simply do not abide by the motions of an interest check, let alone the out-of-character section and rarely, if ever, seem to contact with questions in what amounts to "in-person". This I take as pervasive as even back long before my time with the Guild, on now ancient forums, people just applied to topics and were accepted or declined. But I digress, the point is, is that this asks more of a player and further reduces the pool from those who would rather just commit to writing a sheet and hoping something happens with it. Now if this is for better or worse, judging how devoted a player is or is not, that is to be decided based on one's stance; I personally determine how devoted a player is by how much effort invested into the character sheet their is and how they generally portray themselves out-of-character as well as their account's activity, if I can manage to recover that by observation. Even having used other services to coordinate stories with players or Game Masters, in the rare cases I have been able to play and access them, communication was still mostly non-existent or unhelpful or wasted.

This in the end still makes a sheet extremely valuable, because if all we are left with is a name and a vague, general description, there is no telling what might be in store. I agree that sheets should be trimmed down to what is relevant - I needn't know an entire character's life biography from grandfather down unless it is absolutely needed - and I would also offer that I favor, as a Game Master, limiting the explicitness of information because the players [i]should[/i] be attempting to experience this in the game with one another, fool that I am to hope this.

Simply put, if the above was too much to bother digging through, that is a dreamy idea that will not work in the vast majority of cases because people cannot be trusted or expected to do what should be done. Game Masters need an expedient method of verification and review, players need something that is universal and consistent.