[ano]

Yes, you're right but there're some exceptions the most obvious being MA Ulm (which in skilled hands should be played in a different way than any other nation) and Shinuyama. I am playing Shinuyama currently and I must say that my Magic 1 was a mistake because you get a splendid sacred recruitable everywhere 10-11 RP mage. Magic is drastically effective for low-RP mages and if a mage is rather expensive (being the best researcher for the nation and one of the best in the game) you still cannot recruit many enough to benefit from your magic scale.
So, if I created my pretender again, I would leave everything intact instead of magic scale. It's better to invest those 120 points into extra production and growth which would mean more money and more mages.