"It's not surprising that EVE's unique skill system seems foreign and inaccessible to a lot of MMO gamers"

Something to note: Eve's system isn't unique within the MMORPG world - there was a game labelled Xenocide, which, although free, had an entire system based around real time for research / events. Thus, like eve, planning comes across as 'per week or month' rather than per day.

That being said, Xenocide's player base didn't really reach above a couple of thousand.