Ironically, while I like the soft cap, I would despise a hard cap
There will be an effective hard cap on static damage, though, and that will either be 10 Profs/BS or 11, depending on how nuts the individual is.
10 Profs is currently 285 build
11 Profs is currently 330 (+45)
And every Prof/BS after that costs an additional 45 build. At those levels, you're potentially looking at years between profs (unless lots of money is spent for season passes and pay-no-play, but even that will get more and more expensive to maintain any sort of reasonable build gain).
Also, given the propensity of 'rounding' in a fight, realistically it's likely never going to be above 8 (natural 10) because then you're not wasting build on damage that likely won't be taken because of rounding.
This cap limits the skills a Human Fighter can buy (Hobling can at least get Dodges), and you eventually end up with all Fighters looking the same (Paths don't count toward pre-reqs.
It allows them to spec more into "tanking"
Not really, because at some point, you are forced to buy more profs to meet the "Must have <x> number of Fighter build to buy" that next skill you want (add to this the fact that Fighter abilities aren't really meant for "tanking", and certainly not against packet attacks that aren't arrows/bolts). From the standpoint of build pre-reqs, Profs/Backstabs are designed to be that pre-req. With the new system you can, at MOST, get 2 additional skills of a type before needing to buy another prof.
For example:
Right now, I could get 9 Slays.
2.0 I could make that into 11 Slays.
I have 4 Eviscerates now, I could make that into 5.
In my mind, there isn't a sufficient enough of a disconnect between buying more static offense and being able to buy the "tanky" skills that you want.
As noted in other threads by myself and others, the new Fighter skills are sub-par AT BEST, and frankly not worth buying unless you have to pick between those and "off class" skills like building a Magic Shrub.
Also note that at some point, it's more build efficient for a Hobling Fighter to just buy more Racial Dodge than it is to buy any other defense because Racial Dodge is CHEAPER and BETTER than EVERY other Fighter defense you could possibly get. And the ONLY reason to get other Fighter skills outside of Prof, is to meet Prereqs for things like Evis, Stun Limb, and the highest number of slays/imp slays you can get.
To wit: I have to spend 34 build to get a Parry that ONLY defends against weapon strikes and magic qualifier attacks if I have Spell Parry rituals.
Dodge defends against weapons, special weapon attacks, all packets, and Spellstrikes. All for 10 build.