It is very tough to recall which tab holds what skills, and with the new mouse U.I. we are forced to scroll each list completely to discover the specific skill we are looking for. I understand why skills were split into tab categories - to help new players identify useful or important skills, and to make selection of skill faster. however this new form works against these purposes.
player understanding is not served well by the rather arbitrary categories of "Crucial" and "Labor". This new U.I. forces players to memorize these randomly selected lists of skills in order to avoid a series of annoying menu interactions, since the categories themselves do not really apply to every skill contained within. and new players are not used to memorizing arbitrary lists of things, unlike us old hats.
for instance, the "Mason" skill has been relegated to the old function of architect, with the rather confusingly titled "Stone Carver" replacing the previous utility of furniture building. I do not consider the speed or beauty of a well to be, um, "Crucial" especially considering that a skill every fortress uses, Weaving, is left in "Labor".
similarly, "Herbalist" is almost necessary for certain survival scenarios since it provides a ton of food early on, and most fortresses have access to wild plants.
maybe if the U.I. remembered your scroll state in each category so you weren't forced to continuously click between the tabs and the scroll bar , this would also help.
so yeah. categorization that aligns with player experience is only useful if the players have experience, right?
this was one of the first things I noticed when going through the new embark U.I. (besides not being able to quickly select large numbers of items) and I still have not found myself "getting used to it."