Solar shielding costs OP, skills don't
Solar shielding can be swapped out at will. Skills can't. It also provides damage reduction against energy.
Solar shielding can only be swapped while docked so not really 'at will'. You have to choose whether your fleet is combat optimized or travel optimized before you leave. Also, swapping hullmods on every ship in my fleet clearly does not qualify as QOL for me, that is way more annoying than losing some supplies when flying through storms.
A skill that makes E-burn not cost supplies works for my combat optimized fleet without any refitting and has benefits in fleet chase scenarios (i.e. chasing a fleet or running away) where solar shielding does nothing. The QOL aspect of the eburn skills is more about making chasing little fleets down easier (it can be done with sustained burn to save supplies but it is much harder). Flying through storms is the icing on the cake in terms of the QOL aspects of the skill.
I'd rather lose the supplies from storms than have to refit every ship or lose combat power by spending OP on solar shielding. It definitely doesn't do the same thing as the E-burn skill.
