Originally skinning had 2 parts integrated, Graphics design and Code development. We used to have to do both ourselves.
We used to have to go to the well with a bucket to get water, too, but through the ingenious hard work of others, we now all have running water (most of us anyway) -- if suddenly the aquifer dried up for whatever reason, the water company wouldn't say to its customers, "hey -- don't blame us, the plumbing we laid down still works great. If you want water, it's up to you to find some for us to pump."
Poor analogy, actually...
What HG means is that with modern skin applications such as SKS, and existing widget coding around for people to use it's quite apparent that there are skinners who have little or no understanding of the coding requirements of our craft.
That's fine in itself, but it does mean they are left dangling and lost when the code changes...or in this case...is broken [by whom-ever].
That analogy is more correctly worded thus...
We used to have to go to the well with a bucket to get water, too, but through the ingenious hard work of others, we now all have running water (most of us anyway) -- if suddenly there was a drought and the aquifer dried up, the water company would say to its customers, "hey -- don't blame us, the plumbing we laid down still works great. If you want water, it's up to you to find some for us to pump".
...and even then it's not really a good analogy...