Lack of knowledge skills will hit you in two different areas: monsters and plot events.
Monsters is where a knowledge might give you understanding of a creatures attacks or weaknesses. Lets take something basic, like a ghoul. While some groups put a lower DC to recognize a creature's type, even if we go with the standard DC it would be 11. By the rules you can't make this check if you are untrained (DC higher than 10). You don't and can't know this creature is capable of inflicting paralysis, or that those it wounds might catch a disease that could turn them into it. Casting preemptive Remove Paralysis, or Remove Disease after someone gets mauled (unless you do it for EVERY time a person gets scratched by a monster) would be metagaming. Same goes for the undead type immunities: you don't know this creature is immune to bleed, poison, stunning, and sleep, to name a few.
As mentioned, some DMs put lower DCs for determining type (and thus the immunities I just mentioned). Some don't. But if they do, and the DC is 10 or lower, you can at least make that check untrained, so thats something to check with your DM about. Me? I set the base DC for type as 5/10/15 based on rarity. Humans are DC 5 to get humanoid, Bugbears DC 10, Androids DC 15, etc etc. In the case of truly unusual monsters I may leave the DC at the standard.
The other side is plot events. There are a lot of points in Strange Aeons where being able to make a knowledge check can give you very important clues to solve/overcome some of the obstacles. Not making those will require either brute force or trial and error, both of which carry a potentially high cost in spent resources.
So yes, on a purely power level, not having knowledge skills in any game, and especially Strange Aeons, will hamper you. BUT! Strange Aeons is a horror game, a game of fighting back against the unknown, and hopefully coming out victorious despite all the horrible and impossible things that happen. Going into that "knowledge blind" is actually quite fitting in a way. Maybe not for everybody, but if your group can get behind it, an atmosphere of "SWEET SARENRAE, WHAT IS THAT!?!" as opposed to "SARENRAE'S FLAMES! THATS A GHOUL, ITS CLAWS CAN PARALYZE, BEWARE!" can be a lot of fun.
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I hope so, because I'm playing this adventure path with my fellow adventurers and we're all martials. None of us have int skills or spell-casting, making it more of a horror adventure when you aren't snapping your finger and causing big baddies to vanish in a puff of heightened, empowered caustic sludge.
I already did the first book and I know that we didn't need a single knowledge check for that one. You'll have time to pick them up when they come along, I'm pretty sure. Here's to hoping brute force works though!
In book 3 they will definitely struggle. There is some NPC help though.
There's definitely something to be said for people playing this game WITHOUT a component of the classic 4-person party. My group has been running without a rogue, and I feel like that definitely adds a lot of tension considering how many traps there are, inability to really scout ahead, etc. Meta-wise, it's not the best move, but I think it adds to the sort of oppressive atmosphere that Strange Aeons is really good at.
Knowledge rolls are important when dealing with research and libraries, and there are a few of those early on.
A party without knowledges will move slower, spend more time researching, and might need help from NPCs. Same goes with occult rituals, which are needed in book 3.
I already did the first book and I know that we didn't need a single knowledge check for that one. You'll have time to pick them up when they come along, I'm pretty sure. Here's to hoping brute force works though!
There is a library in book 1, with info. To get it, you'll need to research it, and that's made rolling knowledges.
So either your GM is handwaving the need of rolling knowledges to research the libraries, or you missed important background info about what is happening and why. Both are valid solutions, but both move away from the basic assumptions of the AP, imho.
Remember that there are options for Fighters re: Advanced Armor Training and Advanced Weapon Training to pick up skills = BAB, liberating those previous skill ranks for other skills, such as the ones badly needed in Chapter 3 to move forward with the plot.