I think these are very good questions That were raised a few times. You're bringing an original angle though.
But it indeed all comes down to: do skills matter? If so, how much more do the white skills than the grey skills? How do they relate to a so-called hidden skill (talent?) that can't be trained?

Reminds me of a question someone asked: was any player's performance ever improved by training some particular skills?

My experience: I have a very talented mr/amr that used to score a lot. His passing skills were increased a lot by power training. Nowadays he scores much less, but he's the king of assists. Who knows?