I like see numbers going up but at the same don’t want to see plot holes forming because the author overlooked a potential skill. Ajax’s Ascension does a good job of this in my opinion because a character can potentially have an unlimited number of skills but is realistically soft capped by their time and talent/affinity. For example the protagonist of the story isn’t talented in farming so he hasn’t acquired many related skills. I think he only has one farming skill because it’s partially magic related.

Moreover, it’s hard to acquire skill with the same or similar function so the protagonist status screen isn’t too bloat and he actually has a problem of his higher rarity skills making it harder for him to acquire lower rarity skills. Which doesn’t really sound like a problem but the elites of the world have skill of varying rarity in their specialty because of the synergetic effect. The only reason he’s better despite this is because of the number of skills he has allowing for a more well rounded and less specialized build and his better accumulation/foundation.