Hi stefanv,
Thank you for your reply. Happy to share some ideas.
At our lab, we use both, many times Smil with skImage, as there are lots of functions in the Sk-??? we haven’t and we don’t want to reinvent the wheel. So, we have functions to convert image format from Smil to (and from) NumPy.
But there are some people even at our lab that ask for an easier integration with skImage, and get rid of data type conversions. An example is to use Smil with Keras, and surely, skImage.
Is it possible to make a better integration ? (I mean transparent use of both) The answer is surely yes. Some fields to work on 
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Smil was created as a C++ library, and we added the Python interface thanks to SWIG. The goal of skImage is Python only. This is a different design concept. So the real question is to choose between replace SWIG or just use an wrapper.
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Smil doesn’t support images with float data type. There are two main reasons : mathematical morphology doesn’t need them and you can’t implement hierarchical queues algorithms if the data type is float (infinite number of levels). From time to time people ask for Float data type images in Smil. Implementing float data types is not impossible but needs some code review.
Some time before I was asked about the feasibility of using NumPy as the native data type for Smil. The answer was no. And with the coming of uarray, I think I should wait to see what will come in this direction.
Also, we use both SIMD and OpenMP threads, whenever possible.
That said, we use both and if something can be done to improve their use together, incorporated to skimage or not, is a good idea for me.
(me too, I’m on holidays…)
Regards