Just curious about the stats of our party members.  If one has very high lore skill then would that help in conversation?  High mechanics would work because I could select the party member with the high mechanical skill but lore was unsure of.  If not what's the point in putting points into it?

Only your player character stats are counted in dialogue option checks - you're always the "leader" in that regard.

 

Far as I can tell, Lore is only for being able to cast high level Scrolls (so casters might want it to be more useful between rests).

That is correct. Lore comes up a lot in conversations, so I would say it's a pretty good pick for the main character. You're going to want someone who can use scrolls, might as well be you.