What is Magitech?
I don't think anyone has a satisfactory answer- or their answers are all highly personal and based on their impressions and preferences. This isn't a bad thing, but I feel like we should recognize our inherent biases. This is not a post for people to shout "Magitech is stupid/I removed it for this reason." We've seen that before.
Our evidence of Magitech is scattershot at best. As portrayed in the books, it has complicated moving parts. It can use consumable fuels and reagents. It uses exotic materials beyond that of less complex magical crafts. It requires power sources outside that of committed Essence. It also tends to be the home of automata or similar 'self-driven' devices.
You could even argue that the definition of 'Magitech' is that 'you must craft it with Magitech Ability' instead of the elemental crafts or whatever edition-appropriate equivilent you like. This is a fairly arbitrary definition and hardly a useful one. It's equivilent to 'you wield weapons with Melee' or similar. Functional, but it makes no statement and conveys no meaning.
Beyond that, Magitech is an attempt to codify and balance a certain tier of equipment or asset. You must have this much logistical back-end to make it work. That the self-limiting aspect of Magitech and the statement it makes on the setting is how much it costs to maintain. This is actually a feature, and one that's fairly well respected, I feel.
So having said that, I asked myself that question, and came to what I feel is a useful conclusion.
Magitech, as far as I believe was intended, is meant to be anything that you can't easily build or repair in the Second Age. It sounds obvious on the face of it, but the intent as I see it is to be this sort of 'space' in which wonders beyond that of the fallen eras rest. Not so far gone as to be out of the player's hands, but not something they're entitled to either.
Consider this- is it any less a science or technology, creating a Daiklave? I don't mean science/technology in the sense of hyper-rationalist behavior or obnoxious, dare I say pretentious injection of 'reality'.
I should point out that I do not have anything against 'realism' or 'believability' or even using things from the real world in Exalted/Creation. It's also difficult to balance 'good research' with 'enjoyable game content'.
Right now, a potentially useful definition of Magitech is 'magical workings that cannot be casually made or maintained in the Second Age'. This is not a mechaically useful definition- more a thematic one. You could easily argue the same of Sorcerous Workings in whatever system you prefer- sorcery is not widespread in the Second Age, afterall, absent the various magical academies of the past.
