I completely disagree with this point of view :).
We should assume an open world, not a close one. From this point of view, any part of the system should be extensible by anyone. In most other languages I know, it is not even possible to extend easily a class with new functionality. In Pharo we can, and we know it is a powerful mechanism. It is not the responsibility of the base class to know what extensions are out there and protect against them. Just like with subclassing, It is in the responsibility of the extender.
We should be able to do the same with state as well. Without this mechanism, we are forced to put in place clunky dictionary-based mechanism to support state extension. Essentially, any white-box framework does that. For example, Morphic does that, FAMIX and Roassal do that, too (and yes, this is not a bad thing).
We need this mechanism in the environment, and if I understand Slots correctly, now we have first class support for it. This also means that overrides will be easier to deal with, too. Of course, overrides can induce headaches from time to time, but we should treat these headaches with proper tools, not by forbidding the world to extend.
And if we are at it, we should also be able to extend a class with Traits, too.
Cheers,
Doru