I had two comparable 1/2" spindle gouges, one from Sorby and one from Pinnacle. The Pinnacle ate through acrylic like butter while the Sorby would choke and gag.
They're both good brands and were both fairly new (and sharpened). So I scratched my head for a bit to figure out what was different.
They looked pretty identical from above but when I turned them over and paid attention, the difference suddenly jumped out. The Pinnacle had a different grind angle (longer bevel).
The difference wasn't huge but it made a difference. I changed the Sorby to match and it started working better.
The moral of the story here is that not all factory grinds are ideal for what YOU want to do or the materials YOU want to work.
When I asked a Sorby rep at a woodworking show years ago about factory grind angles, their response was that they're just a starting point, a balance of commonly used/safe angles and they fully expect that more experienced users will reshape as needed.
So, what grind angle is perfect for acrylic? I have no clue. I'd have to test a huge variety of angles against all the different formulas of what we commonly call acrylics (some are much harder than others). I'm too lazy to try that since my Pinnacle works reasonably well and so does my Sorby now that I changed its bevel angle.
I've turned pens with just the roughing gouge all the way just to see if I could make it work...easier with a smaller roughing gouge! I've done entire pens with only a skew to force myself to learn how to get the danged thing to work semi decently.
I spent a couple weeks only allowing myself to use the skew...it really sucked at first but after a bit, I found I could quickly knock out the entire project quickly enough that I no longer minded (or feared) the skew.
I've used carbide tools as well...especially on things like Soapstone where there are likely to be inclusions that are far harder than the stone. Much easier to just rotate a chipped carbide edge than to regrind high speed steel after a nasty knick (though so far, I haven't hit any inclusions hard enough to chip the carbide though I'm certain my high speed steel edges would've taken a bit of a beating).
Mostly, I just use a 1/2" spindle gouge even for the roughing...pen blanks just aren't big enough to warrant swapping to a true roughing gouge for that tiny bit of work.
Rather than sharpen the 1/2" spindle gouge at the start of each pen, I use it as-is for roughing, then touch up the edge once the blank is round. It'll still be sharp enough at the end of one pen to be able to rough in the next.
Find some closeout/clearance-priced acrylics and practice basic tool work on them. Don't worry about making them into pens, letter openers, or anything even remotely useful. Use a few as training aids so you can let yourself try each of the tools you have until you find what will work best for your setup.