Activate SharePoint Publishing Infrastructure Feature Failed

In a recent deployment of a SharePoint site, I have to add a Content Query Web Part (CQWP) so what I need to do is to activate the SharePoint Publishing feature. However, I cannot do it because of an "access denied" error that I got whenever I activate the SharePoint Publishing Infrastructure feature at the top-level site.

This kind of issu is not new for me, and I quickly change the AppPool account after a little googling. However, I got another error of "value does not fall within the expected range" despite I made such tweak and execute the STSADM command manually. So finally, I have to re-create the site by using the administrative AppPool, restore the contents and templates and then change the AppPool account to a more restrictive one according to the best practice.. <sigh>