Honestly, we need to get something for every SP spent. Priority should right now be to add some kind of skill to the basic suits, both to incentivize having them at level 5, but also to make them more useful.

I think the skill bonuses should be like eve. For example give a generic bonus for being that race, then a generic bonus for a suit class (light medium heavy) in addition to the race bonus, and then finally a role bonus, which is a more specialized form of the class bonus with some drawbacks but for a more powerful effect.

Example:

Caldari bonus: 5% (max not per level if per level 1%) shield extender or recharger/energizer efficacy.

Caldari medium bonus: bonus above +

Caldari assault bonus: bonuses above +
5% light weapon damage
10% reload speed
Dropsuit has less hp and recharge than medium.

No this isn't a suggestion just an example.

Basically the medium takes the role of the current assault and the assault specializes even further for a penalty. Sadly this requires a lot of work and I doubt the devs are willing to do it.

Similarly, I think some suits should get an innate role bonus that comes with the suit and isn't tied to the levels.

A good example being the scout's cloak fitting (similar to a cove-ops ship in Eve). It just automatically gets the -75% reduction instead of needing lvl 4 or 5 to actually be able to fit a cloak easily.