A large part of the problem with Waystones is that beyond the High Elves (and maybe the Lizardmen but they do their own thing) nobody else really pokes at them. The Dawi use them but only as ancient infrastructure that barely anyone knows exists, the Colleges don't really make active efforts to study them, the Eonir don't have a large geographical area so their portion of the Waystone network is bound to be really small.
Changing that would be pretty transformative - the Dawi lost a Karak to the Warp because they don't really understand the Waystone thing. Thorgrim basically put the Karaz Ankor into Slayer mode because he didn't understand the Waystone thing. The Empire is routing all their magic to Ulthuan because nobody really understands the Waystone thing.
Waystones are important and juicy research - and I say that even though I sort of favour Bodyguard a tiny bit more at the moment.
Mathilde is a Grey Lady Magister. A fantastically well connected and influential Grey Lady Magister even.
She's got the autonomy because Heidi has very little to hang over Mathilde's head. Heidi would have to be monumentally stupid to give us a reason to 'rebel' - not only would she going against one of the deadliest assassin-mages in the Old World; who also happens to be a political powerhouse but she'd also do it with Ranald in our corner and not hers.
Will Heidi try to manipulate and do tricky stuff? Yes... but then how else are we going to level up that Intrigue?
Frankly a lot of the appeal of Bodyguard, Waystone and Loremaster is that they work in the stuff we're good at - Intrigue (and maybe a bit of Piety) for the first; Learning for the second and third.
The reason why I don't like Markgraf is that it doesn't really focus on what Mathilde is good at. It doesn't help us be a better mage, doesn't really help us be a better Ranald-ite and doesn't even particularly help us at intrigue.
It moderately helps at a Martial oriented path... but a lot of it is going to be Stewardship with some Diplomacy sprinkled in.
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