I agree on both points, especially number one. Knowing the effects just allows for a formulaic strategy that always works.

I'm all for randomness as long as it makes sense and/or is consistent. Like leader personalities in Civ 5, keeping results within a reasonable range is the best approach.

Seems like I'm just reiterating what you've said..

Agreed. Player doesn't need to know what's going on under the hood. It takes away the magic in favour of math. If you want to tell the player something at least make it vague, like: loved - neutral - hated, cruel - neutral - kindly, famous - not well known - forgotten.

I disagree.

Primarily on point 1.

Point 2 is negotiable, but I also don't like the idea of luck determining the result.

There's not much point in hiding the numbers, the gist of the choices will become known quickly anyway and having them visible makes it much more obvious to the player that she/he is making relevant choices that have immediate (and long term) consequences. I'm a big fan of tangible (read visible) results for actions, even if it happens to concern intangible variables.

Furthermore I hope that the designers take up the opportunity to implement spells/items/unit-abilities that key off the intangibles:

• The item Hammer of Justice deals +1 damage for every point of righteousness
• The spell Cruel Edict deals tactical AOE damage that increases by +1 for every point of cruelty
• The unit trait Loyalty grants +1 hp to the unit for every point of compassionate

...

OP's suggestion does make sense in a primarily linear environment where the player faces the same quests with the same choices in every game. However, instead, SK promises much much much content (with supposedly hundreds of quests already in the game). In such an environment it is important for a player to know what decisions she/he's making and what impact they have.

The problem is: are we treating intangibles (1) like quantifiable RPG attributes (like str, dex, int) or (2) like some vague factors operating in the background. If player can check their numerical value the answer is (1). 

The best solution is to make it an option to hide intangibles, and even an option to control the randomness of them.

We don't plan to hide the intangibles. One of the reasons for this is that it's important for players to know the variables that the game is playing with.  Otherwise, they'll think everything is random.

Will there be an "x-factor" to intangibles? Some factor or other to provide some variation from game to game?