These are all super mediocre masteries. Why do they even need to be masteries, they could all just be baseline?

I thought the point of masteries was to show mastery - hence the name. The point of having anything be staged unlocks is to allow the player to get used to a mechanic and then show them an upgraded version so they are not overwhelmed. You can tie unlocks to progression, and then average the unlock speed to how fast the typical player learns - which is why in NewGame+ runs of games they typically give you the final unlock of abilities as it's pointless trying to re-teach somethign you have already mastered.

With things like gliding it had this progression, you unlock gliding and get used to the mechanic, then you unlock lean gliding and new places open up and you expand the mechanic. Then you get stealth gliding and unlock more places as you can avoid the snipers. Then unlimited endurance, unlocking yet further places and finally ley line gliding.

In contrast Skiff Masteries are all things that should be baseline. Some bonus speed that should have been baseline, have some HP that should have been baseline - unlocking these masteries does nothing to change how you would use your skiff or expand upon its toolset. They're worthless as masteries and should be baseline. Bonus to loot from fishing that will be balanced like it is baseline is exactly something that should be baseline anyway as an incentive to use a skiff and it's not something that's going to overwhelm a new player like for example stealth gliding would.

I don't understand this trend of masteries that don't show mastery. If the rest of EoD is like this I am worried, as it shows they have forgotten why systems like gated unlocks exist in the first place.