Consider abstract nouns. For certain of them, definiteness* might not make much semantic sense. Of course, the language might have syntactic rules regarding definiteness that sometimes force a noun to be definite, but let's imagine that this language doesn't have such rules.
Why not have definiteness on these nouns instead be a way of deriving 'proper' or 'good' or 'ideal' X? Friendship vs. the friendship: the first is friendship in general, the latter is ideal friendship. Skill vs. the skill, the first is just ability in general, the latter the ideal ability.
* depending on how definiteness works in your language, a topic to which I have intentions of returning
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