I'm sort of mixed on some of it. I've been looking them over recently and I wonder if some of the subskills are needed.
Like take Acrobatics for instance. Do you really need "Acrobatics/Free Form" AND "Acrobatics/Gymnastics"? Wouldn't simply "Acrobatics" have worked perfectly fine? If you wanted to specialize, you could do that, but it seems like forcing two different skills there is a bit much.
Medtech is similar. Sure, treating animals and humans is two different things, but why not rely on the GM for that? "Okay, you've got MedTech, and your background is that you're a Doctor from the DC who ran afoul of the Yakuza, so yeah. You've got some medical idea about treating that Branth that stowed away on the DropShip, but you're going to take penalties for trying to figure out the correct dose of the tranquilizer." or "Okay, your background is that you're a farmer from the FS Outback that raised livestock. Sure, you can treat the noble's son that got gutshot, but you're going to be taking penalties. And no. Human stomachs don't have 4 chambers."
While ATOW seems to have cut back in the skill section (I think), there is some bloat in the fact that each Subskill is effectively its own skill, so the pruning isn't as complete as it seems. On the other hand, some things I could see a completely different skill for (like Gunnery)
Actually...how's this for a suggestion for a fix? Eliminate most (if not all) subskills, but force those skills that previously had a subskill to take a free specialization, choosing between the previous options.
So Medtech is now a single skill, but when you create a character with it, you have to specialize in either Veterinary medicine, or General. But you get that specialization for free. You can buy the specialization off during the course of the game.
It may skew things a bit, but since everyone is getting them, but not for every skill, it isn't too bad. I think. Maybe. Just a thought :)