I'm not expecting perks to be game changing, and frankly would be very annoyed if they were. While I sort of understand the folks that don't want to see them be mere skill increases what else would you suggest? Saying you don't like it is fine, and totally useless, come up with a viable option.
Sure - here's a few, some of which CDPR has already described.
- Agility-focused abilities. Wall-running and such. You may not like it, but it's in the game.
- For Techie, perhaps they gain the understanding to use a small spiderbot they can buy and use for scouting or other purposes.
- Again for Techie, the ability to craft various gadgets - specialized grenades, unique ammunition, or even small, ramshackle bits of cyberware. These could be separate abilities, depending on how gameplay-changing they are.
- For Solo, an ability that, for a short period of time, reduces recoil substantially (perhaps a "focus" ability) and improves reload speed.
- For Netrunner, access to stronger in-the-net abilities. I have no idea what these would be because I know nothing about the Net in 2077 (not 2020). The ability to hack additional objects and targets, though the effectiveness should/could still be governed by a separate hacking skill.
- For Solo, access to additional bits of cyberware that are strictly geared towards combat, and the ability to utilize them in more interesting ways - hooking into walls and dropping on people, for example.
- For whichever class has the best stealth focus, stealth-oriented abilities that are not specifically tied to the stealth skill (which would presumably make you quieter), such as nonlethal takedowns, access to sleep darts (even if they aren't fast-acting), some sort of distraction hacking ability for netrunner...
Bear in mind, these are basic ideas I came up with in minutes. You seemed to be implying it was not possible (or not practical) to have abilities like this. Some of these could be mere stat bonuses, but not all, certainly, and I'm not a game designer so it's not my job to begin with. But if I can do it... If I can come up with even a few decent ability ideas... surely people who have been working on games and more specifically RPGs for years can do far better.
Plus, y'know, they get paid for it.