I play specialists in hangout based games, which move at a much greater pace than PbP. I'm not tired of either of them. They have diversified to some extent, but they are still specialists and will continue to be specialists.
There is a lot of fun and challenge in trying to solve all problems were thin your specialty. Sometimes it makes things worse, but that is part of the fun.
Tabletop actually at the table is totally different. Been a while since I played tht way. There, you hve more immediate satisfaction and are not looking sto slow milk the character. And the gaming group tends to be more cohesive, so filling "niche" is more practical and workable.
I was just illustrating that your advice, while seeming to be general, was actually rather specific in nature. Players can have fun with generalists, and players can have fun with specialists. A lot of how that works is the nature of the saga, the method for its delivery, to name just a few details.
Consider though, I have specialists who have been played very frequently for real years, but haven't progressed nearly as far as Roberto has in Andorra in game years.
The majority of his development comes from before Andorra, Novus Mane and your Birbracte game (wherein he acquired his familiar, a major change for that guy). I do suppose that accounts for my difference in experience, having to adapt to different styles and expectations while building off the base of what occured previously. And perhaps it is my style of play. My fourth edition character Constantius of Jerbiton, developed him close to fifty years in-game. That is where I came up qith my quote, "everyone's a specialist and everyone is a generalist".
Part of my philosophy also comes from observation of what works and what doesn't in terms of what other players have done in 4th & 5th. It is nice to have a strong trick or three right off the bat. But it is also wise to set yourself up with some options. I remember one buddy, back in 4th, way over did it creating a specialized Criamon (old style). MinMaxed, Dump Stats, one singular line of magical activity, and no talents outside of that. He quickly became frustrated. The story cannot always play to the niche of just one player, nor cn that niche become relevant each game session. Not if I want to be fair to the other players. It was also shocked when his -5 Presence dump stat meant that other player characters disliked his. There are other examples I remember, not as extreme as that one though.
Back to the OP, the Affinity & Pussiant Art combo is good advice. If used in moderation. Just two Virtue points gives you strength in an area of specialization, and you still have plenty of space to round out and cover general bases. As for calculating their comparative worth all the way uo to the ?nth level, that smacks of munchkinism and represents an unrelistic way of representing how a person lives their life.
I m not sure where the balance is, but there is a sweet spot between Optimized and Eclectic. The character still has a niche, but is not imprisoned by that niche and they feel more realistic.
Just two XP Virtues. Warrior and Mastered Spells. And over the years he has been building up Single Weapon and is sorta slacking on Spell Mastery. In a current adventure, failure to have the right specializations and the right spells is biting his ass and he just got whupped by a Tytalus!
Hi,
No matter what a magus does, there will always be a situation that bites him. Tytalus himself sometimes lost!
Anyway,
Ken
Hi,
There is no balance. It's just a point of departure for entering a saga.
(PuAff)*(TeFo)+GP+MinFo is 6vps. That leaves four or five (or eight) remaining for customization.
Start off with a niche, develop other stuff as need demands. (A covenant's starting summae work very well when your character starts off with Arts@0!)
When it comes to specialization, Flambeau himself observed that you don't need ReMe because people are surprisingly obliging when you have enough CrIg.
Anyway,
Ken
Designing a character with dump stats taken to the far extreme and spending a majority of virtue points and characteristic points for the sole purpose of satisfying some "high level" requirement will probably lead to boring characters for players to play. If you design a character to meet a goal and then immediately satisfy that goal there is little left to do with the character.
My corpus specialist wants to write the Branch for Corpus. He's a long way from doing it. Might never make it. And he can rarely spend more than a season per year on studying Corpus and often has to spend a season hunting Corpus tractatus. He was also a Magister in Artibus and maintained his teaching credentials for many years, giving up a season of advancement for 2xp of exposure.
My weather maga is becoming more interested in politics, which was a secondary goal in addition to getting to getting a character designed from gauntlet and advanced conservatively (master of none flaw) get to a lab total of 100, for variants of The Incantation of Lightning.
Both characters were mechanically capable in their specialty areas but had secondary capabilities and goals that make them interesting to continue playing. Oh, and both took Puissant + Affinity in their relevant Form.
Hi,
Sure.
And a great goal for a beginning player is to start off exploring the magic system, which is different here.
Another great goal for a beginning player coming into AM from other RPGs is to achieve something in the world that requires getting out into the world and 'adventuring.'
Even for not so beginning players, starting off with some real power is fun, and having a longer term goal that requires its exercise is more fun.
Having the biggest Pilum of Fire is fun, and having a goal that lets you use it, say, to help the Reconquista is more fun. It won't help you with the Quaesitors, but that's a problem for another session. 
/2
Starting off as a master of spirits is flavorful; tracking down and rebottling all the evil djinn you accidentally freed during your first year of apprenticeship, trying to make good all the evil they have wrought (and continue to work) in the world can an entire saga.
So it's not either/or.
Dumping stats isn't always the best idea, though I have noticed a tendency toward Str -2 or even -3, especially for female characters....
Anyway,
Ken