For the first part(sorry I'm too lazy to quote
),I agree that faerie queens are very important, but should not compare with roc, faerie queens are aimed to help those without air to access air, roc cannot compete in this field. Gor too expensive? Yes, 20N(or 15N) seems too expensive, especially for those with grail or goh and trying to gor every possible tarts. Tarts too cheap? Yes, for those with grail or goh, almost every tart can be very very useful. So we can see, only for those nation with goh or grail(maximum 2 if not exchange grail between allies), tarts are too cheap, if you have to summon half dozen before get a usable tart, 10D(or 12D)are not very cheap. Seems reduce or remove the undead healing effect can best weaken tarts, but anyway, llama use this mod to give another answer.
For the second part, yes, their is no argument on what you said, but still this can be a great problem for those nation without high D or S, like Agartha. As for "aiming GOH or grail" part, I'm afraid there might be too many nation aiming for them, you can't expect to be the luckest one. And again, for those trying to spam out tarts and pick out who is not feebleminded, tarts are not really expensive.
For the third part, are you suggesting to give every or most path their version of tarts? Tarts are great, but they have many obstacle, if not give other summon that provide both sc
and diversity with same degree of obstacle, they will ruin the game. So I personally prefer to seperate the SC's role and diversity mage's role, and finish them in turn.
Forth part, well, I use revenant just to show the "cheapest mage" in the game. A4 pretender? Is that really so rare? They might be pretty useful for sauromatia or kailisa in early games. But I mention A4 because the "10 rocs" part. Yes, it is madness to try to get 10 rocs in current version, and I totally agree that in current version roc sucks. It is your "5A for a roc" make this strategy possible, including the A4 pretender. In my opinion, 15-18A for an A2 roc would be acceptable, or 20A for + 25%A suggested by Dimaz. A2 mage can't be "that" cheap, not to mention roc's hp, siege and patrol bonus.
The last part, I personally will never give my pretender less than S4 if have to give him S. If I cannot afford this price, then I'd try my luck on site mage, or even neighbor's luck
Anyway, for those nation can't construct RoS or RoW, I'd try to buy one, or try to rely on Djinn, and either way, it will be a great pain to have the ring(and the gems spend on them) ended up on tarts summoning. It's not "impossible", it's just not so "trivial".
Edit: Squirrelloid, seem we give the Roc exactly the same evaluation