@d-bone
I'm hardly concerned with what you think about my beliefs or opinions, but your thoughts and statements reinforce them.
As you said, the way you build sheets in 1E and 2E are vastly different. The way you build your PC through XP is necessarily different because of the removal of exponential XP costs. You have Conditions too, which help you get additional XP. But there's more than that.
Conditions don't exist in 1E, and are extremely important for Vampire (if you play it). Vampire 1E and Vampire 2E play completely differently because of the way Disciplines work, and other matters. Werewolf 1E and 2E are almost completely alien. And in 2E, you have systems that don't exist in 1E, and these systems -- the Doors system, the Clues system, the Chase mechanics -- are well thought-out, interesting, and built into the Merits system.
Regardless, we're talking about opinions. I would agree that putting a PC together is similar between the two systems, but the considerations are far greater in 2E and that's what makes it a different game.