Yeah, I'm actually a fan of the trend, though I think losing the blood stone as a booster is a bit of a unintended nerf. Bloodstones are a huge benefit but at the end of the day a side strategy and you can do pretty much everything mentioned here without them...though you probably won't be spamming earth attacks & alchemizing for astral travel.
I also wanted to mention a suggestion from QM to mitigate old age losses before you can get boots of youth. Nab a N1 indie mage and have him cast heal/healing touch on your diseased guys every so often. If there's no convenient indies to trigger a fight you can send a horror at yourself and hold it still with bonds of fire while you do the healing.