Well, I surely don't play at the highest competitive level, in our games (std research, indies 6-8, usually 20+ provinces/player) having "correct" scales are more the norm.
Additionnaly, from my experience, I've a difficult time using a non-immortal pretender (or very sturdy but suboptimal ones like Dragons) alone for initial expansion : you don't have any items, and not the necessary buffs (Alt3) before at least turn 5 (120 RP total, counting a 20 RP pretender + 1 additional 5 RP mage/turn), so you've a serious risk of having your pretender get afflictions (pray it's not Feeblemind !) or even being killed by a lucky Barb or Knight blow...
If you play a virtue how can you manage any non-militia indy force before you get Orb Lightning ?