I get the feeling from a few posters that they would like to downplay skills as any kind of defined game mechanic as much as possible. I hope you can see why from my side of things that could appear to be constructive. To make your position clear then, are you saying that say an expert in History shouldn't think of themselves as skilled (natural language) in History and able to apply that skill in the ways defined in the History skill (game element).
That's a great example. You don't "use History" when trying to recall some information. You...try to recall some information. Your proficiency in History does (or can) in fact mark you as "an Historian", and therefore you get a bonus when taking those actions.
I was going to save some of this for later tonight when I had more time, but...
1. You (where "you" could be a PC or NPC) can attempt things without proficiency. You don't need proficiency in Intimidate, for example, to try to intimidate somebody. So if the Intimidate is a button you can press, what button is the person without proficiency pressing?
2. The goal...such as intimidating somebody...doesn't even have to correlate to a skill with a similar name. You might try to intimidate somebody with raw Strength. Or intimidate them intellectually with Arcana and History. Or deceive them with Sleight-of-Hand. Or persuade them with Religion. The Cha skill names happen to correlate to several categories of manipulation that are extremely common, but we shouldn't mistake those four skills with the
acts of persuading, intimidating, deceiving, etc.
3. There are other forms of mental manipulation which don't correlate well to any skill, but which a character might well attempt. "Seduce" is the obvious one. Befuddle/confuse? Sow doubt in oneself? Bait into anger? Bore (to sleep)? If a character attempts something like this, the DM
might decide that an existing skill applies, but they might decide that it's a raw Charisma roll, or even another attribute entirely.
The point of all of this is that
skills are not abilities. They serve two roles:
1) To add some color to "what your character is good at"
2) To add a bonus to your attribute check when attempting a task for which the DM asks for a dice roll to resolve uncertainty.
Ok, more later. I am summoned.