4Game

Before starting off, yes the changes are bad as WG intends to implement them right now.
If people pony up the money to get ALL skills available, then it would create a massive difference between normal players, even paying ones, and the super whales.

However:
WGs supposed intend is to increase variations in the builds players use. And i think they might be able to achieve that and here is how.

I assume a lot of people here have watched QBs video, and thus have seen how much time or money you would have to spend to grind out ALL the skills.
It's an insane amount of time, almost impossible to achieve even! And that is the point of this whole system.

YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE EVERY CREW SKILL

Just made sure that even the people in the back got this. You will not be able, to get all the skills. At least not in a reasonable way.
The amount you would need to spend is plain and simply bonkers, and time spend would be even more insane.

Now, is it possible to get every single crew skill? Yes it is, and that is the problem of the whole rework as it is right now. WG would have to make a hard limit to the amount of skills a crew member can have in order to make this system work.
With a hard limit, they would create a more reasonable incentive to be creative with your builds. What do you want to improve about your crew/tank? And what can you live without?

With their first itteration, they had a system like that where you could spend a limited amount of points on different skills. And yes, there was still a meta. But seeing how suddenly every skill appears to be viable now, this system would work towards this goal, until another super meta emerges. Or they might achieve varrying builds depending on personal preferences and playstyles, or even on your goals.

Without a limit to the amount of skills, there will be players that spend all their money to get every skill. And yes, tanks with less crew members would need to be handled differently to make them still viable, but it is achievable to get this to work.

They do have to make it easier to reset your skills 100% without gold, if this is supposed to be more focused on different builds. Then the system can realy work how they portray it.

Bonus:

I think that there was kind of a missunderstanding in this situation. If WG only gives a soft cap to the skills you can have, people will assume they are still supposed to have them all and will try to get them all. Because it is kind of possible, in theory. A soft cap stops being rewarding after reaching a certain point, cause it is not worth it anymore. The time spend and the value gained, stop matching. But it still gives reason to play a bit, cause SOME DAY you might get another skill. You can see number go up and get those sweet serotonins from it, as long as you play.