Skills matter, but not enough to bother trying to focus on leveling them. The higher they are when you die the more xp you lose, and the more xp it takes to level them. Unless you already know how to ace the game, you are likely to die at least once or twice with each new zone you encounter as you acclimate to enemy moves and gear up. Or just from dumb luck like running into a 2* archer drauger while you are still wearing troll hide, or running into your first pack of wolves on the hunt when you are no where near an object to hop on etc. Just play as normal and ignore the skills. You'll spend a lot less time not having fun (doing a repetitive task just to gain skill points you are gonna lose anyway)