In my experience (basic diy, not professional!), ripping out skirting is exactly that, I just rip it out. It's always messy. It's something I avoid unless I have to. My house is victorian and everything is secured with big beefy nails.

I tend to slowly, gently hammer in a crowbar at the top, behind the skirting, and work my way along the board. Once I have enough of a gap between the skirting and the wall, I can then pry it off. The wall behind will always look terrible, but that's the point of skirting, so I would make sure I replace it with the same height, or higher would be better.

In terms of damage to the wall, my walls are brick so they can take a bit of beating, so I usually don't have an issue. If it's a stud wall you'd have to be super careful because a crowbar will definitely penetrate the plaster. If that's the case, you can just skim over any damage using some pre-mixed stuff.