No you are correct. Randoms was a compromise to not having to have too many mages. And creating my own was a compromise to not being able to come up with a set of magic sites that seemed to cover all options.
So you are back to talking about 8 mages, but not full coverage of options, in order to avoid randoms.
If I have to go to something that doesnt cover all options, then I figure I might as well go back to using pre-made units and magic sites since those came pretty close to it.
Oh and by the way, there is another mod like this recently created by DrPraetorious called
Mirror Match
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=41453
which I feel has released me from needing to fill a niche for EXACTLY matched nations. And his is even CBM friendly.
(of course the biggest difference between his and mine is that his will get listed in the mod lists)
