I also ran some tests like what Matt described and got similar results. The reason why no schema features are returned by the schema reader on its own is that the schema reader is generating a DescribeFeatureType request without specifying the feature type. I believe this is a bug so I have filed it and will keep you posted on progress.
In the meantime you have 2 workaround options. You can use the Schema reader with WFS reader added as a Resource, and the Feature Types to Read set to the feature type(s) you wish to read. Note that once you add WFS reader as a resource, you can set the feature types to read from within the Schema Reader (before the resource is added, the only feature type available is 'schema').
The second option is to use the FeatureReader with the feature types to read selected that you are interested in and features to read set to 'schema'. Note that some WFS servers only support queries for one feature type at a time, so if you get an error with multiple selected try again with just one. Remember the best way to diagnose problems with any WFS client is to review the log, then copy / paste the WFS Get requests to a web browser and watch what the response looks like. This makes it easier to tell if the problem is with the client or the server - see: https://knowledge.safe.com/articles/19452/troubleshooting-wfs-errors.html