"They patched that out but didn’t give us buildable objects we can train on? The current leveling thing just makes no sense"

It currently seems that there is no object intended for weapon training/practice in the game. IMHO, high skill levels are not that important for progressing in the game, nor are they necessary to have fun with the game. Also, please consider that the game is only about "half-finished" in the moment so really high skill levels may not be necessary in its current state in order to progress.