I'm pretty new to the game, but honestly, I don't care too much about skill level. Always glad to see the number go up... But that's pretty much it. And I like the fact there's an actual deterrent to dying. I'm coming from "7 days to die", and over there, people kill themselves to cure a broken leg.

And, from what I can tell so far, skill are just good enough to make a difference, while not being so good as to make the game unplayable if you lose them. (Though, I am not far enough in the game to comment on later stages.