I put down Thaumaturgy as it is one of my favorites and scales nicely as you progress through the game. Here is the break down of the paths viability:
Communions, fear effects, sight searching, super combatant counters, elephant counters, and teleportation are all within the first few levels. Let's not also forget horrormark and curse. You even have access to the most effective assassination spell in the game, so worry not about the SC.
Further down and you get spells like melancholia, leprosy, and beckoning to deal with large armies. Once cut down to manageable numbers your communion can take care of the hardier units.
Continue and you get more teleportation, more undead counters, and much more enslavement. Black Death allows you to hit the enemy where it hurts, in their income. Let's also not neglect Gale Gate for an improved gem income.
Ultimately I would say that it is a viable tree, as most paths are in reality. You could easily make an argument for alteration using the buffs as a substitute for magic items and Wish as your catch-all. I think the spirit of the question is to determine which path a player actually favors. I believe that the poll incorrectly depicts how people tend to research.
P.S.: It would be possible to set up a game where each player only got spells from one path by using a mod. The mod would essentially make all spells in a tree the national spells of the nation that choose that tree. The real "problem" is that you can't make forging into a national spell. I suppose this would be good in that no player has to make a choice between construction and some other magic path.
Re: Most Usefull Research Path...
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