7th Sea had a bad problem with trained swordsman being weaker than raw powered fighters. The easy fix there was to give swordsman an extra kept die against an opponent who was not trained in a swordsman school. That would be a likewise easy house rule to implement here. You have a Fighting Tradition and are fighting someone without them? +1d for basic, +2d greater, +3d for heroic. Tone it down as you wish. Also, you could give away the first fighting style of each rank for free.
I don't really have a problem with the cost, though, except that it is cheaper to be a good sorcerer than a swordsman. But that's a conflict that exists in my head, not in the rules. From a rules sense, it makes sense that more versitile fighting traditions cost more SP than rites with more limited combat application.
That opinion may change after R&R rolls out though.
Tom