Makes sense. Thanks for pointing this out.
Just goes to show my lack of experience with these advancement rules.
They aren’t really that simple and it was odd to me at first that one could gain advancement towards Transformation by other means than vis eating until I looked at what that means for other seasonal advancement methods. Books don’t make a lot of sense for that so Teaching is one of the main ways a creature of might 1 to 15 or maybe even 20 may get any advancement without consuming vis to offset the penalty (partially or fully). Much beyond that level of might and you’re gonna need vis to eke out even a single point of xp unless the teacher is truly mythical and, obviously, not many magic beings are going to have teaching totals that high but there probably should be some whose essential nature is that of a great teacher, who may even have some way to help teach qualities they don’t have. Seeking something like that and convincing it to teach you for a season, to give you a significant start towards Transformation for some new ritual power or something else that I, as an SG or troupe member, might balk at (for instance the player just saying “I’m gonna give myself this sweet ritual power I just thought of") might be a reward for a significant story.
Gaining a virtue or losing a flaw has to make sense. But it depends how you approach it. In one home game, foe example, we had a magic character change a major personality flaw into a minor one by reading up on a relevant philosophical summmae, not to learn about philosophae but herself. It seemed fitting.
Though Failed Apprentice doesn't give the great lab bonuses it used to, a ghostly creature has some other, fun options. The ghost could Grant Inventive Genius when 'helping' in the lab, and maybe also add a risk factor if you're looking for that. You could also consider an apprentice bound into a lab to be a feature of that lab, granting bonuses and possibly warping and penalties to the lab he's stuck in.
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Odd thought on this- the apprentices Gift became somehow disassociated so that it can grant the Gift to others but doesn't have it themselves, thus enabling other characters to help out in the lab for a season. Add some magic theory and some teaching ability...