One way I've gotten around the min-max trap is to encourage all of my players to add an 'oddball' skill to their Active Skill selection, something that runs completely counter to their role, but isn't useless either. Even if it's something that rarely comes into play, there's bound to be a point where it turns into one of those butt-saving items (potentially earning the "right place/right time" Karma award).
F'rinstance, my group's melee-oriented cyber-sam has the Outdoor group, so he knows a bit of wilderness survival. He's had a bit of fun combining his Navigation skill with his plethora of mapsofts, planning routes for the team. (He also bought a maxed-out general-knowledge soft, I titled it "Encyclopedia Generica".)
I also encouraged them to do the oddball route on their knowledge skills, picking out one or two things that aren't immediately relevant, but might be fun to have. The Catholic mage in the party is fluent in Hebrew, just 'cause.