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You were right with your usage of tinkerer, he was just offended

“Unskilled” is quite literally in the definition of tinkerer. It explicitly implies a lack of mastery.

Tinkering is more or less synonymous with dabbling, which is used more these days. Synonyms with tinkerer would be amateur, hobbiest, dabbler. There’s definitely an implied interest in how things work, but also strongly implies that one is not serious about what they’re doing.

More in line with your definition would be artisan or craftsman; although fwiw craftsman can have a negative slant in modern (American) English as some people use it in lieu of blue-collar workers.

Other way around: Artisan is the negative one with implied pretentiousness, craftsman is the positive one that implies high skill.

I agree artisan can be a bit pretentious, but calling someone an artisan != calling someone pretentious, whereas calling someone a craftsman (to some people) == calling someone blue collar, someone who works in the crafts/went to craft school.

I think the term in the original comment that you're referring to was "craftsman", not "tinkerer".