Sneak should not be a mainline skill like you're making it out to be where its all or nothing.
It currently is all or nothing and I am not too pleased with it.
I would like Sneak to spill into anti-sneak and recon territories.
I would like to offer sneak options to BG / EW / ect.
I'm thinking of things like the stealth coat, which removes contour and player name and making your character transparent while stationary.
Perhaps listening devices to give approximate numbers of enemies in the area or direction and Jamming devices to counter that.
These are just small examples of what I want to work us towards.
Thanks for the responses, I posted this before I went to bed last night, and wasn't expecting many positive responses.
Sneak definitely is "all or nothing" currently you are right but with the stacking effects of a leather jacket and ghost 1 and 2 you can reach some pretty ridiculous levels, which I think have come to be the standard (i.e. if you dont have 220-250 sneak with all of the stacking buffs, you might as well reroll because everyone will think you are shit).
The severe difference between 175 and 200 can be overcome with a leather jacket (125 skill points worth of pants right there). I think if the bonuses and maluses were reduced in severity, sneak might no be so all or nothing, in that you don't HAVE to wear a leather jacket to sneak effectively, but it helps (+10 instead of 25, and make ghost 1 +20 and ghost 2 +10, and not stacking etc, same with the maluses for weapons, reduce the severity in numbers, as -10 to a 200 point skill is a huge detriment really while -60 renders it completely useless).
I really like the idea of making specific distinctions between recon and combat sneakers, recon should have the most bonuses (and possibly have the PE minus removed), but obviously be very badly disadvantaged if they start or have combat started on them (to avoid "recon" sneakers just jankily doing combat). Combat sneaking falling into a different category, where it is nowhere near effective as recon, but the combat penalties are much less severe. Though how you would separate these distinctions I don't know (maybe wearing only light armor a stealthboy and a sneak weapon classifies you as "recon" and gives you a substantial bonus to stealth, instead of just a huge bonus from your jacket).
To counter sneaks mainline nature, the effectiveness of other secondaries could be upped, traps are almost unused by all parties, i have 193 for example, but it is mostly used for detecting npc traps, trappers should be a sneaks worst nightmare, but also perhaps linking leadership to both boosting and anti sneaking. e.g. a module that grants a bonus to sneak (or increases perception while sneaking) and a module that allows for easier spotting of sneakers on front or sides etc.
Particularly I want to suggest large area traps (3-5 hex radius) that do light, electrical damage, that not only reveals a sneak, but drains some of his stealthboy if it is active when he steps on it etc, or burns over time, in which they cannot re-sneak.
And how about a grenade type (for throwing and shooting) that is specifically made to disrupt sneakers, the explosion reveals sneakers, does a small amount of damage, and say disorients or winds.
Sorry to carry on but I do enjoy discussing this stuff, and am eager to hear more about the specific sneak and anti sneak stuff. Currently I think sneak and first aid are extremely strong compared to the other secondaries, and as suggested I think that could be evened out by making traps and leadership specifically more than just a one man job when it comes to combat.