I don't think so. We'd come across people going
"OH LOOK AT ME, LOOK HOW GOOD I AM AT <Profession>"
Even thou they shouldn't be IC'ly.
Or even people trying to IC'ly sell whatever they make, for absurdely huge prices, for OOC money.
My vote is no. Would bring Abusing and such.
I'm really indifferent. Perhaps a tad leaning to no. I don't believe that you should have to do anything OOC to be able to do something ICly. But at the same time it can help. You don't have to get uber/t10/haxor gear to be able to roleplay in an hostile environment, but it helps in the event you run into a strong NPC. Personally, I wouldn't. I'm lazy and I just don't have the motivation (excepting engineering, I'd totally level that for the lulz.) On the other hand, it (like others have mentioned,) shows that you have put at least some dedication and effort towards that character; and that's a good thing. Yes, there are chances for it to be abused. But I don't think there's a system on CoTH that doesn't have at least some room for something somewhere to be abused by somebody.
Just my two copper.
Uh. Let's say I RP a veteran warrior. I wouldn't have to work for it, why should I be required to work hard to get a high level profession skill OOCly, when it's all about RP?
The main reason for this poll was a result of a few folks claiming they were Master Soandsos and then expecting to get a free boost in their chosen professions to supplement it (this goes back to my original statement of hearing folks complain about being unable to use certain things because they don't actually have the skill). A bit backward in my opinion, considering I like people to put some work in their characters so they have less chance to simply ditch the character after a week or so. Those who get everything handed to them seem to have less obligation to keep playing the character, and even have more of a chance to make throwaway characters because of this, causing more work for the GMs to fulfill their whims (if we did give professions freely like that, that is).