Skills in the game

...and it's not entirely useless, as is the scouting skill itself. :)

Not quite. It can also be useful for transporting troops (why spend extra money on another hero?), and you can give it free logistics and pathfinding so it moves faster, ownership so it generates money, and skills to check where the necessary skills are and where they aren't... so it doesn't just eat up resources for no reason, especially since it's already been hired and leveled up a bit.