I don't see why there isn't just a longer wait time for respecs. If you got one a week after respeccing like the other characters, yeah that might make sense,(And even then it looks to me like a solution without a problem) but how about just lengthening the wait times for respecs on mains, instead of throwing hard earned EXP out the window?
I would be more than willing to wait months before I could respec my main again. This would pretty much prevent a person from respeccing every other large battle.
Better yet, include both options. Let the person lose 20% EXP and be able to respec in a week, or lose no EXP and Respec in 2-3 months.
Edit: The main problem is that this completely cuts off a person's ability to not retire their character. There is no level 36 strat character build for someone who isn't playing the game every single day. I just don't know how people bear retiring their characters over and over again, losing all that progress for the sake of stronger items.
I wasn't aware that I couldn't respec without a penalty, and now I'm stuck in this limbo that can't make use of the points. It's frustrating, especially since I now have a village to manage.