debatable claims. however, the magic balance in HotA is still better than in SoD

Do you even remember the last time you leveled up any magic while chasing the tempo? :D
In SoD, there is no balance of magics (or other skills). There are good skills, average (situational) ones, bad ones, and completely useless garbage. That's how it is, and that's how you have to play. In TE/HotA, they tried to balance the magics, but ended up with a mess where one school is top-tier and one is completely unplayable.

In HotA, a competent player in week 1 would almost always prefer earth over water, and at a later stage, the opposite. That is balance.

That's not balance — that's an indicator that earth is a situational skill, good enough to take the first Griffin Conservatory, which you could take with meat anyway. Balance, in my understanding, is when all elements are equal. I realize that's impossible to achieve because the element with Dimension Door will always be top. Although fire and earth were made fairly even. If they could achieve that for all schools, it would be great. IMHO again.