From what Ive noticed, everything has a variance to it and as your skill increases/ equipment matches your skill, the variance moves to the upper spectrum, of course these gains are barely noticeable as you go, but in comparison do make a difference..
Example in crafting, at low skill the overall average TT on success is lower than it is when you are skilled, the range Ive noticed is less than a PED ofc over time, but it does slowly go up. I saw this from 30 attachments engineer to less than one after chip out, The average changed, a bit in that case.
You can witness this in the auction on heavily crafted items as well. The average TT values vary depending on the crafter and their skills/BP quality.
Now, Same thing goes for gear and BP's ect. Using a finder/(even amps have an optimal skill mark) that has a certain match to your skill set, and you will find an optimized return. Or in the case of BP's/crafting QR affects this. Hunting same thing, better returns on average as skill goes up, however slight, was alot more noticeable/easily gauged when we got PED in loot.
So I assume that skills and the equipment that we use are all dictated by this general formula.
Another way to look at this would be from a business standpoint of Mindark. The reason it would need to have this component to the game is to avoid the gambling accusations. You see, if Mindark can prove an increase in returns by increased skill, then it is not a luck based game.
I would guess if someone with say 10k prospecting got that claim it would no doubt have been over the 50 ped mark, as the finder/amp and the skills are generally optimal at that point.
