Wizards aren't all that hot. Even optimized, they can be competed with by optimized Scions, Shapeshifters, Changelings, Emissaries, mortals, and Focused Practitioners.
Unless you decide that spirit can hit the mental stress track. Which is, I'd like to point out, not actually part of the rules. It's just implied by an element description and some setting material. Ignore those implications, they make spellcasting uber-powerful instead of merely super-powerful.
The Laws have nothing to do with this, by the way. The biggest victims of mental stress with Evocation are monsters like Sue. Then again, Sue and company do suffer from the existence of Incite Emotion already.
The problem with Template balance, in my opinion, is that it's basically impossible to optimize some other Templates because suboptimal choices are locked in.
Don't forget one of the most basic balancing points of the whole game design - Refresh and Fate Points.
A Wizard who takes Refinement likely has no more than 2 Fate Points (and often only 1) at the start of each story. The GM can and should be hitting all the players with compels, but the Wizard is forced to accept more of them than other players if he wants to have a good stash of fate points for when things get tough. Thus, if compels are getting your players into as much danger and trouble as they should (think all the various nasty situations Harry gets tricked or lured into, or all the times he thought he had things under control until it all went wrong), you've got a natural balancing point.
This game wasn't designed to be balanced around numbers, in my opinion. Story and mechanics are tied too closely together to ignore one or the other in a debate like this.
None of that is story, all of that is numbers.
Which is good, because numbers are the only thing you can really balance around.
This game is geared towards wizards...
Where does this idea come from? I don't really understand it.
Oh, and I object to the idea that the GM should have to work to prevent one character type from stealing the show. That indicates poor balance. But for what it's worth, I don't think that wizards really demand so much work.
Not sure how feasible those wearing-down ideas are. Could you provide an example of how they're supposed to work?