I will try to expresss my thoughts about age part of this discussion as simple as possible:
char of 18 is very healthy and very quick, but with so low skills and h/p that many options are unavailable to him.
char of 65-70 is very sick and slow, but it is expected that he acquired something during his career.
in that respect, if we want some balance, would it be logical that mid-years are golden years, where there is best balance of skills and health? that can last from 30 to 45 or from 35 to 50 or something similar, but there should be some years when character is at its peak, first he patiently work to reach his peak, than he enjoys his peak for a while, after that he sees his things are slowly degrading.
i felt some of my characters never got chance to enjoy in their peaks - annoyance by low skills is just replaced with annoyance by low health, and that is what i feel discouraging.
