I just came across something I had been working on a while back (3 or 4 years, approx.) that was pretty-much the opposite of "developing the skill and not the category."
In it you developed the category and had a certain number of skills under that category that you could use that bonus with (without a negative). These skill depended upon your background, profession, and what you learned over the course of your career. Now, you could specialize in some of the skills under the category, but only so much. I think it was something like 5 levels of specialization, with each level granting a +10 bonus to that particular skill.
I think I am going to have a deeper look into that.