The mazzei venturi is about the oldest of the "modern skimmer" drivers. All subsequent skimmers, are merely variations utilizing a basic venturi with either needle wheels or bio-balls to break up the bubbles. The only style skimmer that does not use a form of venturi, is the counter-current (and co-current) air stone driven skimmers. The mazzei skimmers perform just as well as anything on the market today.
At the end of the day, it really does not matter how the bubbles are produced, and all styles of skimmers, providing the basic design is sound and adjusted per the manufacturer instructions (not he said, she said) provide the same performance.
For your skimmer, if you don't have the facilities for R & D, and a method for the quantitative analysis of your skimmate, (chromatography) modding the skimmer is going to be a waste of time, as you will have no means to determine whether any mods you make improve performance, or hurt performance. The manufacturers have the facilities for such development, and it is highly unlikely that the skimmer can be improved by trial and error. If you find the skimmer lacking, it is likely because it is too small for the system, (or it is just a bad design) and changing the method of air intake is not going to make the skimmer perform as a bigger skimmer, or make up for poor engineering. It just is not that simple.
In order to tweak a skimmer, you need to be able to adjust the air intake, and bubble size, independently of the water flow, and the only skimmer that can be done with is an air stone driven skimmer, that uses a discreet air pump and a discreet water pump, and interchangeable airstones (fine, course, etc.) But you still need some form of quantitative analysis to determine the affect of changes made, and foam production and skimmate color, do not say anything.
