@Coin said:
But at that point, I can just say my character did a bunch of things and ... forego roleplaying the themes of the game I allegedly wanted to play.
Why would any reasonable player want to forego roleplaying the themes of the game that they want to play? The answer is simple: they don't.
Limiting renown to only what one receives through plots isn't unreasonable, but it makes the gathering of Renown tedious and boring in practice. This is because, whereas werewolves are generally spending 100% their time being hardcore spirit-bashers, players have less time to get their badass-ness on. And sometimes, a player just wants to sit around, smoke awakened plants, and talk some real wisdom with others -- or plan pack activities, or otherwise roleplay outside of a plot.
Allowing players to "fill in the blanks" with submitting Renown stories allows players to play what they want to play when they want to. Otherwise, they will be killing themselves, figuratively, getting into plot after plot, just to meet Renown demands. And that's probably not what you're aiming for.
If your only reason for eschewing alternate systems is "I don't think that's right," then I don't think you're giving the suggestion due consideration.