I guess maybe I don't really get all of what you are saying. You have the gist of what I was getting at. Here is my typical thought:

For classes that I percieve to not be as skill/spell dependant(Shifters for instance) I try to rank as fast as I can with quests and Explore/Obs experience.

Now with the Melee classes and other more skill/spell dependant classes, I was thinking that I do only the Fine leathers and then head out and solo rank on other things to try and gain. Had it with a warrior I was doing, and noticed a significant difference on skills against some previous where I would do a couple others and hit level 5/7 before I went into it. For my assassin skills, I've been able to get them as high as they will go by 15 for the most part. And the best I've had on defenses I think was two mastered by 25 or so and the last by 28. All of those were assassins though, so I don't have much experience outside that class for real skill improvment yet. I can spam hide/camo with the best of them, but I'm talking about the things that need to be improved that can't really be spammed.(Eg Defenses)

I'm just curious how much others do the same.