[Agema]

I agree that Man's pretender design is not obvious - I've done MA Man MP, where you're in a moderately similar position except your mages are far worse. However, many of the problems you raise here are experienced by many nations, such as awake SC vs. non-awake non-SC. It's a tradeoff of early for late power many have to decide on. Similarly, site searching strategy, how to dedicate mage time, is common to absolutely everyone. I don't think Man is unique or unusually bad in these sorts of way.

I think you're underselling magisters. 2.86 res per 70gp is not bad. Check out other late era nations: it's more gold efficient than a lot of others can manage (Atlantis for instance gets 4research mages at 140 gold.) The ones without magic will work as scouts and spies, so even the non-magical ones are not a waste of money. Also, 210gp for a magister is not bad. Go check out other nations - about 200gp for a 4-path old-age mage is Tien Chi's situation. Offhand, I could tell you MA Pythium's theurgs are 180gp, 4-path and old age.

I agree you have an issue with unreliable magic path access, particularly death. The fact you get N gems without a natural N mage is also bizarre, and pretty much demands some N magic on the pretender. A lot will revolve on how you make your pretender. But I'm not convinced their situation is as bad as you're making out.