After playing for far too long, and having the advantage of having been able to play on both coasts, I would have to agree that there are two distinct playing styles.
East Coast: Teams, houses and Wars.
West Coast: Small Units fighting for power in extremely harsh campaigns.
I loved going to the East Coast and getting to somewhat relax as a player. I was able to see the structure and see how one could work their way within it.
And, I have to admit, when we started the old Garrenshaw (Alliance SF old campaign) we very purposely went for an oppressive and bleak game world to have a reason to fight back.
The reason I am back playing is that the new Stonehaven campaign is really trying very hard to feel much more like an east coast game with west coast antagonists. They are working hard to come up with a great mix between the two play styles.
That being said, back to this topic:
I being a Templar who has scraped serious points out to have even 10 Formal levels, understand that is can be rough having that point sink and not having anything to do in a combat situation. I am lucky that as a Templar I can at least be a stick jockey when need be. But I can seriously see the desire for something interesting to do with those formal levels. There are some great ideas in this thread, and i look forward to seeing discussions about ways to make Formal casting a touch more relevant to gameplay, more than just a way to do a DA.
-Jason 'Jakartin' Mendoza