I'll back that up. The idea itself is solid, where it falls flat and shatters its facial skull bones is the rate at which you learn things and how exactly you learn some of the XP points.The leveling system? Good.
The leveling rate? Garbage
The UX/UI? The fly on the garbage.
The Reward vs Challenge curve? Seemingly non-existent.
You can gain your first three levels by making 6 swings with a sword, but got forbid you get an (actually useless) focus point on level 18. It's too quick in the beginning, it's stomach-juice-in-your-eyesockets level of unbearable on high levels, and there's that little realm on levels 7-12 where you feel neither like it's raining focus points nor like you're wasting your time levelling the last stat you can to gain something.
Unless you deliberately grind some of the skills, you just won't be seeing them anytime soon. It has to stem from the fact that the way you recieve XP for some skills is questionable at best.
Bought some olives? You're now a good leader. Won a battle against impossible odds? Here's your helping of 1.4 influence, the stuff you can get a dozen of daily for sitting in your fief picking your nose. Run along now.
Bought 1 piece of Hardwood at Dunglanys and sold somewhere else? Here's your Trade XP, you little entrepreneur. Running a network of workshops and 5 caravans, making 5k on a rainy day? Tough luck pal, better go haul some Hardwood.
And some perks being in their perk trees is strange as well, such as ammo in Riding or the duplicate "any bow on horseback" perks. Half of Tactics tree is dedicated to actively discouraging the player from using tactics in combat, which is a questionable addition regardless of what the intention originally was.
That all said, however, the idea of levelling skills separately and becoming more proficient at them only via actually using them is extremely interesting. I realise that it's still EA and the perk tree will likely get reworked sooner or later, I'm just wondering how to playtest them without cheats in the meantime.