It might be easier to revamp the skin system if there were fewer skins to port.
Touché.
So.. so 2 questions 1) would anyone have any objections to moving it out of core and into its own extension? 2) would anyone have any objections for turning it off on Wikimedia wikis
FWIW, having a single skin in core would actually be a good thing for skin development. Currently writing a skin outside core is difficult - I found this in the development of the mobile skin. Having a leaner codebase in core would actually encourage better organisation to make things. skinStyles is a great example - if your skin is not in core, you can't use it.