Rule

Use skew as a regime description, never as a reason to pick one structure over another at 2-10 DTE.

What it means

Moving skew from the 25th to the 75th percentile changed a 60-day QQQ put spread by about 7% - and near-dated sensitivity is smaller still, amounting to an extra commission. Broken-wing butterflies and ratio spreads justified as 'harvesting skew' are, at this tenor, a rationalisation for taking a different strike bet.

What skew IS good for

Describing the surface (put IV 16.5% vs call IV 7.4% says the market fears one direction) and pricing per-leg IV correctly.