The skate series is basically what you make of it. I've played the shit out of all 3 games, still have fun playing all 3 from time to time, but what I love the most out of all the games is filming and editing, especially editing lol. I've got into this because I'm currently trying to get better at RL filming, and I personally find that Skate 3 has helped me... As stupid as this might sound, I try to imitate RL filming in-game, and it kinda helps me visualize how good a trick can look both IRL and in-game... idk if this made sense, but wtv haha. Also, before the series, I didn't know how to make a video at all, but with the help of others around the community, I've progressed a lot. My stuff is still kinda basic editing-wise, but I still love doing it.
I love playing the game realistically, most likely due to the fact that I've been skating for like 10 years or so now, but from time to time, I find it's fun to just fuck around on a megaramp or something insane. There's a huge variety of styles of gameplay, in which you'll probably see from seeing a lot of videos done by different people, and you'll eventually find others that play the game how you want to play it. There's a lot of us who play the game super-realistically, and a bunch of others who play more arcade-ish, which is perfectly fine either way. But like a few others said before, just have fun with it, don't ruin your fun because someone else tells you to do it differently.