"Shadowrun is a point based game" points-levels. So yeah.
Are we talking about the same type of levels here?
Pen-and-paper RPGs have had a variety of systems over the years. "Point-based" games, rather than XP & level based games, work by awarding you points when you succeed in quests/missions/whatever. You then spend those points directly on various improvements. (Like, increasing a skill from 5 to 6 might cost 20 points, while going from 4 to 5 might cost 10.) The same type of systems generally use points at the beginning to build your character in the first place (a typical system would be.... you get 200 points, and all your stats are "average". Raising stats costs points, dropping them gives points, getting your starting skills costs points, you can give yourself "advantages" and "disadvantages" - again, costing and giving points respectively.) Point based systems tend to have "sub-stats" like Health, Mana points, and Fatigue calculated by formulas off your main stats.
They also frequently have opportunities to exploit math or other issues to overpower your character.... which is why the GM needs to keep watch over what the characters are doing (Champions was a huge example of this....)
Of course, for judging the difficulty of pre-printed adventures, they still need some way to measure the power of the group - some systems just do it by the total point value. "This adventure is suitable for a group of four to six 300pt characters". But beyond that.... there's a live GM. They can adjust how things are going in ways that a computer program can't.
-----
re: the whole "remove levels and base it off your skills" thing. You can do that - but the game will probably have some kind of hidden "level rating" that you can't see, for it to be able to pick things off leveled lists and judge the scaling. So "levels" would still be there, you just wouldn't see them. :shrug: