I do think that relying on stats is an absolute bare minimum prerequisite for an RPG
Aaaand I don't.
I have no particular problem with stats (in fact, to this day I still have only awful things to say about all the wannabe modern designers who have some clever criticism about how "obsolete" D&D is and then can't come up with something that works actually better in practice), but I'm also fairly sure you can have a game filled with the most elaborate stats and rules top to bottom and it could be a incredibly dull RPG (as most JRPG easily prove) while you could have a stat-free (or at least stat-light) game with a lot of hidden depth.
EDIT - It should probably be clarified that when I say I don't value stats much I'm speaking about giving a lot of visible stats to compare/alter directly to the player. It should go without saying that the system behind the curtain needs to be solid and well thought to have a good game that makes sense (or just works) mechanically.
That said I have no problem to concede that a lot of "stat-light systems" going around these days in gaming are simply awful and as dull as it gets. Mass Effect and Dragon Age come to mind.
As for world interactively, NPC reactions, and whatnot, that's just a bunch of window dressing that's nice to have
No, no, NO. I couldn't disagree more. That's not "dressing" for shit. That's THE CORE of the experience (beside combat, which is typically the other central piece.).
That's what makes (to different degrees) games like Ultima, Gothic, Fallout or Torment what they are.
Stats are there to serve the system, not the other way around.
EDIT 2: re-reading this exchange I've got the feeling we are diverging from the original point, so let me summarize my point.
I'm not saying I don't like stats nor I'm advocating for stat-free RPGs in general.
I'm simply arguing against the assumption that the quality of a computer RPG is tied to how stat-heavy it is.
You COULD have a game with barely any [visible] stat that offers a lot more freedom and depth of a stat-heavy title, in principle.
Back to TW3, regardless of how you classify it for what it is, it's a good example of how stripping it down of some unnecessary subsystems could have helped it to be better, as some of us were already arguing. "Levels" don't seem to have any useful place in this one, beside creating some fairly artificial and immersion-breaking weirdness, for instance.