Just FYI:

(Although you all probably know this)
It would appear that unless you are actually on the associated Bard's quest, you cannot "finish" this tomb, nor can you get back out once you have gone a certain distance.
The action required to trigger the next step does not fire - it would seem - if you are not actually on the quest.

(Apologies if that's old news, we're just catching up... )

Ack! In my experience it's best to not go anywhere near it before you join the Bard's College and get the quest. I suspect picking up the quest related stuff in there broke my game to the point that I had to start a new character (certain cells just wouldn't load). I would hope that subsequent patches have fixed this, but I hope you have a nice safe, clean save...

I do, from before entering it.
I even deleted all of the saves from when I was in it, just to be on the safe side!

The most we have now done is "discover" it, whereupon Niamh got one of her "bad feelings" and refused to go anywhere near it.

I did it before I went to Bards' College. Then I went to Solitude, started the quest, got the 'Is this the book your looking for?' option and finished the quest. No problems at all (I'm on PS3).

But I did misplace Marcurio. He couldn't jump down the well, and then he was gone (he showed up in Riften later, though).

Well in fairness I would have done it, but the book wasn't there so I couldn't...

I understand that they make places that can't be entered or can't be all the way explored because of a quest, but to not be able to get back out? That's a little much. I also hate it when you clear a ruin or cave and you clear the place of loot and then later someone tells you to go to that same place to get something, and all of the sudden, it's there when it wasn't before. There are actually a lot of quests you can "break" like that, including the Windhelm quest, "Blood on Thin Ice". I've been told that it's the buggiest quest in the game not only because of the fact that some of the essential NPCs can die before the quest activates, but because there are a number of things you can do to break the quest. (The term "Break" is referring to actions that bring the quest to a stand still to where you can't proceed, or simply ends/fails the quest.) Most quests can't be broken as most essential NPCs are invulnerable until the quest that particular NPC is involved with, is over. Also, they usually make it impossible to do anything other than your current objective. (I mean impossible to skip to the next objective and so on.)

Thing is, I get that if I was on that specific bard's quest and the book wasn't there then I'd have to take steps, and yeah you can't back out unless you get all the way through but that in and of itself is hardly an issue because that's the design of that tomb and frankly it's a good design because you have to go on.
However, we have a clean save, she's not, and never will be, a bard - so there is no reason for that aspect to ever be an irritation. There's enough flexibility in my RP to allow for it so whilst I can see why it might bum others out for us it's just a place she knows of but will not go in. She might visit it at a later date just to see what's there, discover she can only get so far and then have to come out again once she's reached the well.
We have a few tombs and so forth that we know of but have never been in - yet.

[EDIT] - also, if a quest is broken because we have killed someone that we should not have killed or done something we should not have done then that's not really too much of an issue - for example we still have an unfinished quest that can never be finished because we killed one of the protagonists prior to it's completion. That was our fault and I don't see that the breaking of that quest because of our actions is unreasonable.
IRL if you are told to go to X and do something, but you have already been there and:
A. destroyed/sold/used an object
B. killed the person you're supposed to see
Then of course you won't be able to complete that task - I don't see that's an issue, it's - (IMHO) - certainly not a game design issue.

With respect to my original point: We could RP that she simply got stuck in that tomb, just another adventurer who went where they shouldn't, and restart a la DiD stylee. What in fact happened is that she petitioned her creator who bestirred himself from his slumber and rescued her, placing her back outside of the tomb, where she was almost immediately killed by some wandering Forsworn, and thus the Karmic balance was restored.
See?

TL;DR

Ditto. I always explored this tomb to the end despite not interested in joining the college.

The only side effect is the book and ruby claw stuck in my inventory (which is possible to remove on the PC, via console)

Yeah but like I said, the book wasn't there...

Weird i never had any problems with this dungeon, even did this a few times before i ever went to solitude

You did found the ghost of the death bard did you and followed him ?

Only the later quest from the bard college seem to be buggy for me

Yup , found him and followed him.
Book wasn't where it should be.

Both of my characters have cleared Dead Man's Respite while doing "Word Wall Revelations." The necessary item, the book, has been there both times.

The note was patched because it was possible for it to move and get stuck in the clipping, especially if the player shouted or had Dawnbreaker with them.

If Niamh is never going to be a Bard, then you might be okay with exploring the dungeon. My trouble started when I accepted the quest 'Tending the Flames' which was long after I'd been in the dungeon. After starting the quest the Blue Palace, Dead Men's Respite, Stony Creek Cave, and various other cells would not load under any circumstances. Reverting to previous saves, including very old saves, couldn't fix it, which I suspect was because I'd been in Dead Men's Respite so long ago. Eventually, I reluctantly scrapped my character and started again making sure to not go near Dead Men's Respite until after I'd been given the quest, and have had no issues.

Well you see that's just the thing - she isn't, but we can't explore all of it because the book isn't (at least at the moment) there so the spook never triggers the door and, well you can see where this is going!
TBH - it's no biggie really, it's a dungeon that can be explored up to a certain point and no further - yet, there are plenty more!
But I take your point, funnily enough we had a problem with a quick in the Blue Palace so we kinda leave that alone for the moment - (although that was mod-specific I think so prob unique to us!)