You aren't putting into 500 tokens what takes 5k tokens to discover. I've found that when I had these larger markdown files with all the details the models STILL went to the code to review. Then the markdown files get stale in spots, NO MATTER WHAT. Not only stale, but if you're having agents maintain these files they WILL hallucinate or input superfluous or unnecessary info. Now that I have short markdown files (or none in some instances) the agent just looks at the code and it's pretty simple to figure out.
And yes, I think most of the skills are a waste of time. You're just creating more shit to maintain. The most usable and reusable skills end up being short and concise, to where you could just type them into the prompt in any number of ways adhoc... effectively making the skill mostly worthless. The big skills end up being too much and less effective ime. And it can be difficult to rely on agents to invoke skills or the right skills.
If my skills need maintenance and hand holding, what am I really gaining?