Ok, as a non-chipper who aims to keep it that way, I'll offer my perspective, but PLEASE all fans of chipping (of which the majority is formed) don't see this as me saying your way is wrong. Too many people are in favour of it for that
So, for me:
I think skills when gained naturally are a record of the actions of my avatar, and as such, to chip in extra would be polluting the methods I'm using.
I think all skills work together to define performance; general, attributes, combat, the lot; so to me the only way to create a balanced, properly functioning avatar would be to chip ALL skills (impossible as some can't be bought) to the levels they would naturally rise to through use (impossible without speculation or serious maths).
I tend to do the same things in-game; hunt a certain way etc. My skills are gained from these activities. To chip in is giving me skills perhaps in areas I don't need, or in ways that counter-act the effect of other skills.
I KNOW that chipping brings forward unlocks and aids performance. To me though, the game is a test of patience, and chipping is failing that test.
I might have to wait a long, long time for the skills I seek (250 health and 10/10 on a few UNL weapons) but I believe the avatar I will have by then will be a better-performing one than anything I could 'buy', as every skill will have gone up in relation to each other, from my actions, not from my innaccurate choices of what needs chipping.
An analogy to explain further:
Yes, IRL I would go to the furniture shop and just buy a chair, perhaps the best chair, a recliner with cup holders and softest leather that is the envy of my friends. I would have had to work hard, save up and choose it, so I would be proud of it, and I should be; it's a damn fine chair.
But in a virtual world with all the time I could ask for, I much prefer to go out in the woods, select a tree, cut my wood, shape it, fix it together and make a chair just for my arse to occupy in comfort. I'd sit better for it. My chair won't be worth as much as some people's, but as it's all my creation, it's priceless to me.
As in, RL makes you take shortcuts, but EU has more options... and if you spend your life taking shortcuts you deny yourself a lot of stuff along the way.
Hurrikane