Originally posted by BoxingBud:

Seriously I was in the water for a long time befor I drowned, on stream mind you, while pressing E to get onto that ladder of the raft forever and I just wouldn't get on. It's a bug, and I lost skill levels for drowning and it was entirely not me. Make crap work in the game befor you punish players for bugs that kill them with skill loss. Thank you.

Skill loss as a whole has not been an impacting issue with progressing in the game. Part of the reason for this is that there are so many ways to play the game with different play styles.

You just have to be mindful of your play style and choices mostly.