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When we bought our house the guest bathroom was a dark little hole in the middle of the house that was totally black unless you turned a light on. I retrofitted a skylight, which solved the problem and turned it into a very nice room. We also installed a solar tube in the central hallway. We opened up a central wall so the living room and dining rooms get light from both sides of the house, and removed a pantry, replacing it with an additional window. We replaced the 2x2 window over the sink with a 6' bay window. Can you tell I like natural light? All the windows are low-E glass with honeycomb blinds, so the energy efficiency is excellent. The east end of the house is getting two new 5-0 windows this summer.
Ah - here's my chance to voice this opinion. I always have to bite my tongue with clients who love them.... Or think they will love them. I have tried to warn some of them... people never listen. They think they want light and airy bedrooms too... Until they realize if they are ever IN their bedroom in daytime, it is because they are trying to sleep. And then they want dark.
Hubby and I hate our skylights. We think it's unwise to cut a hole in a perfectly good roof, particularly in Western Washington. They are notorious for leaking.
They are loud when it rains. They suck the heat right out in winter, while letting in heat in the summer.
We can't wait to re-roof our house this summer and get rid of them for good.
But that's just us.
Personally, I think you have to have your head examined to put a skylight in a bedroom. Although you can certainly put shades on them (preferably cellular shades) which will help a lot.
Skylights can be sources of leaks, but that's usually an incorrectly installed unit. I usually tell people if they're having their roof replaced that they should replace the skylights at the same time. Better to do it too soon than too late.
They're definitely louder in the rain as you say and I definitely find that they let heat in during the summer and heat out during the winter. Our skylight is in our kitchen and on a hot summer day you can't sit under it. If you do, you'll feel like a hamburger under a heat lamp.
All this being said, I absolutely love a skylight in a living space like a kitchen, a family room, a bonus room, etc. I love my skylight overall and wouldn't want to get rid of it. I would however like to have someone replace the glass panel in mine with something "low E" to mitigate the heat loss/gain issue.
My mother has two, one in the hallway and one in the kitchen. The problem being this is Florida and when it is hot, and it is almost always hot, her kitchen is very uncomfortable. She did have a leak in one of them but her house is almost 30 years old.
If I lived in a cold climate that was rainy a lot. like the PNW, I would probably want a skylight.
We have one in the family room which is great. And one in the master bath which is also really nice. It's nice to walk in there and have all that natural light. I'm not sure I would want them anywhere else. Maybe over a staircase
We lived from 2000 to 2006 in a house built in 1984 (so 16 to 22 years old) with three original skylights. Never had a lick of trouble except when softball sized hail broke a couple of them one time. Shortly after we bought the house I went on the roof and covered them with "solar screen" fabric which cut down the solar heating in the summer but still allowed plenty of light.
We have two, one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom. Both rooms are very small, so I like the extra light. I cringe every time we have a hailstorm though, which is a regular occurrence. So far, so good.
Sometimes I get a little paranoid, though. Our house is a single story ranch, and it would be very easy for someone to climb on the roof and peep through our skylights.
You would hear them walking on the roof. Nearly impossible to sneak around on a roof.
Yeah, that's true. Not much I can do about it anyway. The skylights were here when we bought the house, and overall, I like them.
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They think they want light and airy bedrooms too... Until they realize if they are ever IN their bedroom in daytime, it is because they are trying to sleep. And then they want dark. 
