For the most part no, the skills don't make a big difference. There are some that I have certainly noticed the difference with, like jumping and as weirdly useless as it is, swimming have saved my bacon before. Sprinting is also a really helpful one, but the first boss you beat gives you the ability to flee a whole lot better when you really truly need to so even when you dont have much sprint skill you have a major compensation for it.

Jumping is a big one, especially if you like building actually. The higher your jump skill the higher you can jump and you need to boost this up a bit to be able to jump up a full wall height like i tend to be doing when trying to build taller homes. So this one is usually the one I notice the most when first starting or when i suddenly cant make a jump around my base that i used to all the time because i died and am just a little too unskilled to now.

Swim is an odd one for me to praise, it's practically pointless. The one thing about it worth noting is that you dont drown quite AS fast at higher swim skill. The only reason this has been noticeable for me is moments I lose my boat unexpectedly and find myself stuck swimming and just plain praying i can reach shore before both my stamina and health have run out (and this kids, is why we stay fed on boats to). Losing my boat happens so rarely though that it's really one of those skills you never think about until its already too late anyway. heck the last time I lost my boat wasn't even to an enemy, it was to a desync with a multiplayer server while sailing that saw me spawn back in a ways behind my boat in open ocean (thankfully there was a sand-bar chain within swimming distance but playing castaway until i could get a raft to go get my boat back was not the most thrilling way to spend what was meant to be an iron trip originally).

Sprint, same thing, better stamina usage so you can do it for longer (and you can make longer horizontal leaps with it and you do actually run slightly faster to...just fast enough to escape certain mobs you just cant seem to shake at the start of the game at least). Makes a noticeable difference when you spend most of the game constantly running everywhere mostly, but since that is exactly what you do it isnt like this isnt going to rebuild itself quickly.

The rest of the skills have their own perks to that generally mean you can do the skill slightly better, but especially the combat related skills you just get used to using them regardless what your skill level is actually at. Sure a high block skill helps you block, but you generally also know that your gear and current food contribute to so you aren't relying on the skill itself to make the difference, it's more a useful little boost to reward you for not dying all the time as you keep playing and make it slightly easier to keep it that way.


TL:DR: technically yes, the skills do matter to a degree as they give nice boosts at higher levels that can alter how you play in some cases (some more noticeable than others) but overall they do not change the gameplay so significantly that you have to be incredibly concerned with them either. Mostly just try not to die too often and they will usually grow faster than you lose them. That part comes down to experience a lot of the time though, so at first you just have to deal with your mistakes getting you killed.