It's not really Evocation methods if you're dodging the mental stress that's part of the evocation method. It would just be at evocation speed.
Hmm. Possibly true. Maybe we need to get an official word on this part.
Yeah, they don't have to be unbeatable. They just have to be lots better than a normal block. Since they don't spend shifts for duration - pretty essential IMO if you want to do anything besides maintain the shield - a 5 power Ward is more equivalent to 7 power block that gets 2 extra exchanges. Plus it comes with the reflecting bonus. And it shouldn't take stress to do it?
It's not as unbalancing as you're suggesting. To even do a 5 shift Ward you need Superb Conviction, and an effective Superb Lore for Warding. You also need an effective Superb Discipline to do it at all reliably, and can't make it a Rote, but items can grant the second two, I suppose. And you need Sponsored Magic of a type that doesn't even exist (none give Warding except,
maybe, Soulfire).
Those requirements are probably more stringent than getting 7 shift blocks (Superb in Conviction, Great in Discipline, Evocation and Refinement in a chosen element, 2 item slots), and a 7 shift block is alot more flexible in what it does. It's a bit more expensive, sure, but not to an unwieldy degree. For example, you should bear in mind that Wards are stationary, and cast on a location, not a person, and that restricts them significantly.
It's powerful, sure, but it's not like Sponsored Magic doesn't already grant you the ability to not pay the Mental stress under some circumstances.