Nagot,
Sure I have less experience than you have, but I recently saw a good number of ID fights and not once did they fail to cast Quickness/BoW before fighting. Sometimes they were killed before (by spells) but the sword wasn't in the equation
.
Agreed on your remark about Shield of Valor, it should also work against Eth X bow and JMCs.
But I now wonder if a combo Athame + MageBane, or Faithful, or Firebrand isn't better, at least against other SC (not against hordes of chaff dying to BOW alone ..)