There is no sense of progression otherwise. I don't know about you, but the skill gains make me happy. Progressing directly to 100% or starting at 100% would really detract from that to the point where you have no more skills/spells/sups/songs to work on. On the other hand, it can be really frustrating when a skill just wont go up due to RNG. I'm pretty patient though so it is not usually an issue.