Ahhh, I think I get it now. I was more thinking that the skills were meant to function like Battle Arts in other games, basically like super moves that do more damage. Instead, it sounds like the main source of damage is your basic attack, while skills are more meant for utility to make the characters function differently each battle.
Playing the build a bit more and knowing this now, I can see what you mean! The skills being more about utility than damage makes sense to me, and the tradeoff seems clear when playing it a bit more now. This is very cool, and I’m glad I got this info because it changed how I approached combat for this game. Again, good job on this, it’s coming out great!