What drives a poor reputation for the Rogue class?

[Keltest]

I know there's a difference, that isn't the question. The question is whether non-Assassins can make one, not whether they're different.

If they can't, that one feature is arbitrarily limiting every other rogue (not to mention every other skill-based character - you want to tell me a Bard can't make a false identity??) and should be thrown out.

If they can, then the rogue has every feature they need to make failing at making one a statistical anomaly already, meaning the feature isn't worth the paper it's printed on, and should be thrown out.

Ergo, conclusion - throw it out. Evidently a conclusion WotC themselves came to as well, even if they don't quite know what to replace it with yet.

Sure, its the difference between spending a week on it because you know what the important parts about it are versus spending a year actually living in town so people know who you are.