I don't think that any of this helps hard-research games. I think it helps games in which you're trying to play dominions without using pretenders, blesses or magic.
A dormant SC can stop a blessed rush on a decent sized map. He shows up on turn 12 and he can appear with equipment.
At very-hard research, const 2 costs, what, 260 RP? That's easily achievable by turn 12 by Pythium (for example.)
The difference here is that you can't take a prince of death and have him leap on your opponent's face on turn 3
.