Goodness, I’m awful.
So, again, I don’t actually have the time or wherewithal to write a massive reply to everything, but I’ll pick and choose a couple quickies posted above…
In my opinion, this isn’t actually the case. When evaluating the relative worth of resistances, I consider the reductions I’ll be facing in the game. In Ultimate, Chaos Resist is reduced by -25% (did we change that? I think we only changed Poison/Acid and Vitality…) and Elemental Resists are reduced by -50%. But since Elemental Resistance as a whole refers to Fire, Cold, and Lightning Resistance, its actually a -150% reduction to the overall stat. Furthermore, -Elemental Resist is a lot more commonly used by enemies (Shar’zul nukes your Fire resist, for instance) than -Chaos resist.
In light of this, point for point and in a vacuum, 1% Elemental Resist is a lot more valuable than 1% Chaos Resist. Even 1% Fire Resist is more valuable than 1% Chaos Resist. Do you remember the problems of the reduction of resist reduction in Vanilla GD with v1.0.0.4? If not, here, have a gander: http://grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40042 The problem here is equivalent but opposite.
Elemental Resistance is a lot more common than Chaos Resistance, but only because it needs to be. Going from -150% to -120% is a lot more significant than going from -25% to -7%.
On the other hand, the Armor is literally worthless and the % Damage is close to it…so my belief in its strength stems solely from its resists.
The Racial Damage on SB is as much a ‘garbage stat’ as Light Radius for the vast majority of the game (as a whole; maybe not your ‘ultra common super endgame farming zones’, but for everything entirely in the game) and a meager 1.12x damage boost when it does apply. So instead of critting for 30k, you’ll crit for 33.6k. Yippee…If it were 3% you wouldn’t notice a difference in the long run. If it were 25+%, then maybe we could talk.
Trust me, WD characters usually can’t ‘sneak’ them on easily. Most WD characters will wind up with ~340-440 Spirit from mastery investment alone (Soldiers getting even lower than that). Most caster armor requires low-to-high 500 Spirit, already requiring some investment into the stat or sacrificing an item slot (cough Pretty Great Pants cough) or two. Focii tend to require 700+, as you pointed out. As someone who has made a WD-focused 1H + Focii melee Firestrike Pyromancer, there was no ‘sneaking’ the focus on, there was a lot of Spirit investment.
Which we (I believe) plan to gut down by a couple hundred.
I’ll grant you that.
By how many points? 8-10, out of annoying developer-imposed necessity due to a player’s desire to try a hybrid build rather than choosing to invest in it of their own accord? And then they’ll still just invest entirely into Physique? 
I don’t mean to flame you with this, if that’s how that reads. But I’ve had the thoughts before and after dwelling on them some more I’ve long since banished them from my mind. Stats should accommodate and empower builds, not enable them (except in extreme circumstances, like 50+% X converted to Y in one instance on a piece of gear). Mechanics should be the enablers. If we’re to fix the Physique vs. Spirit/Cunning conundrum, it will happen mechanically. Changing stat requirements (raising Spirit/Cunning or reducing Physique) doesn’t actually make anyone want Spirit/Cunning MORE or Physique LESS.
I actually really like Lantern and think it is the go-to for Hybrid builds. Keep in mind that you can use it with Scepters/Daggers, not just with Focii - Hence the inclusion of Attack Speed. I think the constellation is really strong and take it when I can…except that I usually can’t, because Eldritch affinity is kinda rare and getting 10 (or 7, after maxing it) requires more than just Crossroads + Hawk. Maybe we could reduce the affinity requirement from 10 (7) to 8 (5).