Step-die RPG systems and variance

I once heard a sports pundit—it may have been Frank Deford—say that amateur golfers ought to stop saying, “At least I’m consistent.” He argued that consistency was exactly what separated the amateur from the professional.

I mentioned that I like the idea of “smaller is better” step-die systems over the more common “bigger is better”. Here’s why: In a step-die system, the variance of a skill check changes with the character’s skill. In a “bigger is better” step-die system, the variance increases with character skill. In a “smaller is better” step-die system, the variance decreases with character skill.

The latter makes more sense to me.