That is an awesome quote. That said, my brother got Arts and Academe, and was taking a couple philosophy courses… He nearly changed his business major to a philosophy major after that. Ars Magica can be intense like that.
In terms of what Ars Magica is good at, it’s play over long periods of time interspersed with a bit of adventure here and there. I don’t know that Ars Magica is the BEST at seasonal long term play, just that it’s Good at it. Downton Abby, in my opinion is one of the best styles of game that Ars Magica does really well at. Just replace the Nobility with Wizards and you have a slow moving drama/soap opera that lasts generations.
There are a couple actual plays up in the forum, I recently added a map to mine. This is a war game campaign, which Ars magica may not be the best actual game to support this style of play, but it’s what I got. Actual Play Write Up: 1st Crusade Campaign of 1096 - Games Discussion / Ars Magica - Atlas Games RPG Forum. Can give you a sense of just seeing a game in play were no one really cares (at all) about the philosophical aspects of the system. That said, this game is the result of dozens if not hundreds of hours historical research into the background of the 1st Crusade and what happened with the Crusade of 1101 and other “early” crusader year history up to 1187.