They can also be earned and sharpened while gaining said diplomaExperiance and knowledge and know-how trump a diploma every single time.
In my opinion, the devs have no problem with creating. It's the communication to the player part that is lacking. The game does rely quite a bit on previous gaming experience and nous rather than having purpose made in-game tutorials and explanations. That tends to cause unnecesary levels of frustration at times, as you are clearly aware of.I think the game fails because it is too opaque, and that the developers don't know how to create and communicate. That is my thesis, and the numerous complaints support it.
Thankfully the ED community are a great bunch of dedicated people who like to help each other by making external tools, tutorials, explanations and etc. Of course that shouldn't serve as an excuse for FD to not improve communication and explanations (something they have already promised to improve). It ultimately comes down to if you're a glass half full or glass half empty type of person. For example, lots of people who posted here gave you a lot of accurate information as to how to dock the SRV and how to solve some problems like when the ship lands in awkward terrain so hopefully that has helped you.