4 is less than 5? If you don't have Ranger you don't get all 18 skills and still level 6 spells. You can start Bard, instead it would end up getting you more options for two of your skills.
If you don't care about spell slots, then you can possibly swap rogue in for cleric. That depends on how they implement getting multiples of skills.
It seems like they universally swapped any mentions of thieves tools proficiency with sleight of hand. The assumption then is that rogues get any one skill plus sleight of hand as a multi-class. However, to get that 5th ranger skill you have to take sleight of hand. So that drops you to 17 skills if you can't replace sleight of hand.
Unless they fix half-elves to have their 3 skills, then you can swap to rogue instead of ranger or cleric, no problem.
Technically 5 is more than 4 but the 4 expertise the Rogue gets are more valuable. 4 skill proficiencies and 2 expertise at level 1 is more valuable than 5 proficiencies...very simple really. And one proficiency less hardly matters for anything when I get 2 from wood elf, 2 from background, and 3 from skilled before the 4 from rogue.
