When a game has rules for the character to possess skills in that sort of thing, they're often supposed to supplant the player needing to be good at those things. Too often, the GM will let skills stand on their own for some things (such as Athletics), but not for other skills (such as Persuade). You probably don't ask the player where they want to place their hands along the wall, and then declare that they fail because they forgot to say they were checking whether a particular handhold was loose; that's usually all covered in the skill check.
Not that either method of game design is superior, of course, but the inconsistency of application between different skills can be an issue.