I think this area of the text is very interesting, and certainly worth exploring the implications. It is an area that very clearly takes a view on how HQ2 should be played.
Of course we can ditch any rule we want, and in some communities it is anathema to state that a game text is somehow prescriptive.
But general points aside you do seem to have a pretty clear idea of how it should work in niche protection terms. I would add the point made that it isn't necessary for the character to be present for the modifier to apply.
Personally I fully embrace this rule, it always wound me up as a player when I would play a specialist and then another player would try and compete with my specialist skills. At one point, playing a wilderness focused tracker, I ended up just calling out this behaviour by asking a player why he wanted to be better at tracking than my specialist tracker.
I think the behaviour comes from the concept that class based games have niece protection but skill based ones don't. Clearly HQ is focused on where the PCs fit into the overall narrative, and their signature abilities should be considered a key part of this.
Jamie
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