Why Skyrim chose to not use the Speechcraft checks in dialogue? (and maybe other skills too). Fallout does this better and to me it feels more rewarding dialogue when I can use the progression of a skill (or attribute) to access (or resolve) dialogue branches. In Skyrim it feels like a huge wasted opportunity the speech skill, it's like here is a tasty cake but you don't get to eat it.

To be honest, Fallout 4 is the first time that Speech Checks have been frequent in dialogue in a Bethesda game. At best, they're a token inclusion in a few quest related interactions, at worst it's almost an entire write-off skill.

I think the problem stems from the fact that, when it comes down to it, none of the games really have good dialogue. Fitting in skill checks requires something approaching conversational flow, or some sort of impediment to information, that just hasn't been present in TES.

For Speech Checks, or Skill Checks of any kind really, to be useful, you need NPCs that withhold information, and dialogue options which are insightful or conversational, rather than just what basically amounts to shouting questions and NPCs disgorging information at you.