If I hate Kiwami for some reason, is it possible to skip ahead and not miss a lot?
I don't know why everyone says Kiwami sucks because it doesn't. It feels like an expansion to 0 and is also really really short so don't skip it because the most important character for the next 5 games is introduced.
And the dog. THE DOG. Also last time to use the styles. You could skip any game through Youtube and the cutscenes easily, but I wouldn't recommend that at all.
Play 0 and do as much as you want in this game and experience a ton of beginnings through sidestories too
Play Kiwami just for the story and maybe for some sidestories
Play Kiwami 2 for the story and also I would recommend the hostess game that continues from 0 (story) but you could Youtube that too if you wanna save 5-6 hours of play time, also do Majimas extra story (continuation from 0)
Play 3 remastered just the story
Play 4 remasted just the story at first
Play 5 remasted just for the story at first
Play 6 and get hit by ton of feelings, finish anything you want (there is not a lot to do here so quick and easy) and there are also a lot of callbacks to older games and things, especially 0
Wait for 7 by playing Judgement, doing side stuff in 4 and 5 which are worth it.
Enjoy.