CCP is pushing to close the gap between experienced and new pilots. With 1.7, they basically did just that, but it created the problem where everyone can get a stock HAV (I haven't seen threads so far about dropships or LAVs) with 0 SP investment and perform just as well as the dedicated tanker who spent 10mil SP.

We need skills to affect fittings and attributes a lot more than simply reducing cooldown and active timers. Turrets themselves are fine because they progress in damage as they advance in tier. Turret skills are also fine because they require a lot of SP to max out, but definitely creates a gap between a new pilot and a pilot who has maxed their skills.

The problem comes from the core skills not doing enough and the modules not becoming more effective as they advance with tier (cooldown timers excluded). For example, simply reintroducing the skills that gave +5% to max shield/armor per level would increase the gap between new and experienced pilots (anyone still remember those skills?).

We also need a lot more support skills that increase module effectiveness. For example, shield extender efficacy, shield booster efficacy, resistance amplifier efficacy, etc. Adding skills like these will help to distinguish between dedicated pilots and new pilots. It will also discourage players from buying a stock vehicle with 0 SP investment that don't intend on specializing into vehicles, while those that are dedicated to specialize will break through the high barrier to entry.

I'd like to further argue why it's a good idea to have a lot of support skills like these. In EVE, you don't fly a ship only because you have met the prerequisite skills to do so. That's true, because even though you can step into, say, a battleship, but your turret and defense skills are lacking, then you're an easy kill, even though you might say you're in a battleship! It's the support skills that distinguish players, not the ships. It should be the same in Dust. Being able to drive a Soma with 0 SP shouldn't mean that you can perform at the same level of a dedicated pilot. You should be an easy kill, while the dedicated pilot should be hard to kill.

I would like to imagine that having all skills at level 1 would give someone a good taste of that specific vehicle while remaining easy to kill. All skills at level 3 would be decent enough to require one proto AV, while all skills at level 5 would be enough to stand up to at least one proto AV (all depends on the fitting used, of course).

TL:DR
1.7 further closed the gap between new and experienced vehicle pilots. This brought a lot of people into stock HAVs who never intend to specialize into vehicles while being able to perform at the level of a dedicated tanker. Re-introducing the gap through support skills and increasing the differences between modules among the tiers would help to increase the gap.