Skillfulness to me implies giving a crap about the world you share with others. Skilled, in comparison, is a consolation price.

> One of the most repulsing stories that I got from Soviet Union from my grandparents was about excellent engineers being on the same pay scale with manual labour workers.

That's the most repulsing? Nothing about children and old people being murdered en masse? See above, more skillful grandparents would have told wholly different stories.