Agreed. I'm obviously not a numbers guy, but some things bug my sensibility. I don't like to have rerun spells on one province while others are deprived. Certain races have good spells like dwarf and work great with additions. I always hear criticism of halfling mystic, but the spread is nice IMHO.
Amnesia for the undead sage when chained can be used to gut the nw middle prelude to a pincer with ops/sabotage support; depending on how many are chained. Again a mid to late war tactic.