I wouldn't ask you to skip any of the books. It's true that nothing (in the grander story) moves in the middle 5 or so books, but there is a lot of fun events and character interactions that do feel like it is worth it. The later few books, especially the ones by Sanderson are definitely a good payoff for the investment in the middle few.

It's not as bad at all when you're reading once the books are all out anyway. They're not bad, just not as good as some of the others.

The real pain was people reading them when it came out, so they'd wait 2 years or whatever for the next book and then it'd come out and the plotline they happened to resonate with didn't get very far. Or it progressed some but didn't particularly end on a high-note.

In a painful sort of way slogging through those books in the middle makes the later books even more enjoyable I think.