I read somewhere that some of the skills, which you can assign skill points to, are not active in the game atm. So am I right in thinking that assigning points to inactive skills (I think Medical R&D was one of them...) would be pointless?
No, not pointless. When you start, you have a rather large bank of skill points. When you level up, you get only one skill point. It is very hard to level up skills after creation.
Therefore, if you think you're going to want a skill later, it makes sense to put points into it at the start, when you have the points to do so.
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"May the Grace of Ara go with you, and His Vengeance be wrought upon your enemies."