Maybe because you wrote "increasing access times", which could be read as "skip lists are slower." Not what you meant, probably.

This was my understanding of that comment. How else could that be read? I am not able to think of another interpretation of that statement or a context when increased access times would be desired.

The intended interpretation is that skip lists make access to specific items in ordered lists faster.

I am actually a native speaker, so I have no excuse here. I just suck at writing, I guess...