Basically I find it counterintuitive when people start to grant themselves or others shapeshifter 4 or mythic herbalism 4 when they have not touched a plant in their whole lives. Sounds... like cheating to me. You know what I mean. As long as people do not do that it is fine. And yes, I am aware that these are gruagach/nat magician staples but I still do not like them much despite loving both traditions.
There are other traditions to play around here. There is a whole listing of 50+ traditions out there. No need to limit ourselves to the HMRE book. The following list lacks a few of the latest books to compile, but you get the idea:
Witches and vitkir get one vote then. Nice