The impression I got was that many were unconfortable with it, but didn't want to fight about it. Since it was pretty interlaced with the power-level discussion, it kind of got pushed to the side and never explicitly resolved. I know that you raised the question on the general board -- my reading of that discussion was that there was a conscensus that lab virtues such as Superior Construction do not scale up.
I don't want to rehash the whole of it, nor start a protracted discussion again. My main point is that allowing it quickly leads to all kinds of abuse -- such as a scribe (built similarly to Alexander) who can add 7 to a tractatus' Quality he's copying simply because he's an extraordinary scribe, or a glassblower that provides a lab with Superior Equipment x7 (thus +7 General Quality, +7 Safety and +7 Vis Extraction).
I think Covenants is pretty clear on the fact that lab virtues and flaws, unless specifically mentioning it, cannot be taken more than once (p.113, second paragraph of "Laboratory Virtues and Flaws"). Similarly, p.88 states that a skilled artisan (scribe, illuminator and/or binder) adds 1 to a book's Quality if he has a Profession score of 6 or more (implying that it does not increase beyond that).
I know that you find that dissonant with what City and Guild implies regarding the quality of goods produced by a skilled craftsman.
But, like I said, I don't want to restart the whole discussion. So why don't we put it to a vote? I think there are three possibilities:
- Quality of craftsmen can multiply bonuses (e.g. Alexander provides the labs with Superior Construction x7)
- Quality of craftsmen only provides the stated bonus, no matter how good they are (e.g. Alexander gives Superior Construction to the labs, but only once)
- Quality of craftsmen provide only the stated bonus, but when they are good enough it can provides some (small) additional bonuses (e.g. Alexander gives Superior Construction only once, but due to his great skill he also gives one additional bonus lab virtue for free, such as the Auspicious Shape, Gallery, Lesser Feature (approriate for a woodworker) or Well Insulated)