I don't think direct hit is useless. It's on our equipment anyway. However I think increasing the chance of crits might be more beneficial?

As for SkS, I got the list weapon which lost 187 SkS. I'm now unable to do my opener. So SkS is something I need to invest in at present. I though however think that the 1k or 1.1k is the sweet spot for SkS. It allows that extra rotation from perfect balance when RoF is up which is always good