FWIW part of the disconnect imo is that PC's live and die in seconds -and choose appropriately.
It's like Smoking, if cigarettes gave a Mettle buff. Sure you'll get cancer/emphysema and die a slow, wasting death -but if you blow your Mettle roll right now, you're dead today.
As for IC woes, I recall in LA having 20 Ranks in Knowledge: Religion and still not knowing anything about Belisarda's tenets and rituals.
That's just how it is sometimes.

See, I got this impression from an earlier discussion on spells we had, but in the rules book... nothing. from the rules I thought the wasting disease and harvesters only applied to sorcerers, not any other casters.

It sounded like other arcane casters might be scooped up by harvesters if they happen to show up after a sorcerer, but they aren't generally targeted in their own right. What little I've seen the shaman organization in the hinterlands doesn't seem to have any fear of harvesters, nor do the psionic trainers of the various val houses, etc. If these are real concerns for non-sorcerer casters, I think a side-bar indicating that would be very helpful. Heck, I assumed the "path of" spells were to some degree the replacement of the wild shape of old for druids, so I thought it might have the same form of duration (scene could be days out in the woods, or the entire trip from city to city). Imagine my surprise when I learned that scenes were really meant to only be minutes rather than sometimes hours. Especially since you can’t recast these spells while in them, so you have to convert back and then recast, which could have nasty consequences… And then to learn that being in your wolf form might attract harvesters and give you the wasting disease? That is a shock.

Just to let you know, Pedro, this is not hypothetical. People not only argue that they walk into every scene "spelled up" and ready to go, but there are many judges rignt now that allow it. Nothing in the rules that say not to. That is why I am pushing so hard for some guidance. Not even a rule, just a sidebar like I suggested with your words. And maybe some consequences. Because this is happening all the time. You may not see it, but it is there, and if that's not how it's supposed to be, the current rules don't make it clear, so a bit of a clarification would be REAL helpful.

And I'm right there next to Dave, because i don't like arguing with those people when i say , no your spells aren't up

Expect a little side bar in the magic section of the FAQ part of the doc.

I should be posting an updated document tonight

you had me untill the last line

why?
It's to simulate someone casting over and over and over and settling at the most common result.

in other words you have one shot to get what you want, fail, and you get your passive +a bonus (instead of saying, calculate the bonus from all your talents and special abilities and items and so on)

Now it can be argued that the bonus is too good....

or they can try and fail, and beforeced to suffer the actions of ther choices, where they could have just cast it with their passive if they wanted a sure thing?

then you end up with "we have time? I cast and cast and cast again until I get the result I want"

I'm willing to say just flat passive mind you... the +5 was me being (maybe a little too) nice