Haha, thanks for the answers and the welcome!
I'm playing as a warrior with fire creations backing him up. So I put most of my points into strength, intelligence, melee and fire shaping. Plus a good amount in dexterity, endurance and quick action and some healing craft and mechanics. The rest of the skills I leave more or less alone (put some into leadership, but I figured I couldn't have everything so I decided not to increase further).
So if I understand you right my creations will gain additional benefits when they level up even if I don't spend those 2 skill points?
And if I have a higher shaping level and my creations start on a higher level, will they also cost more essence or will I get better creations for 'free'?
Finally, does all of this apply retroactively? If I already have a fire creation and increase my fire shaping skill by a few points, would it be better to create the same creation again to have a higher level version of it (assuming the existing creation didn't level up a lot already)? Or will existing creations automatically gain benefits when I increase the appropriate shaping skill?
