As for our Punch vs Fireball, I guess its a huge difference in our play style. If I'm going to go through the time of making an Arcane Archer.. well, I'd want to be an arcane archer. Not a dude who fires off one arrow, regardless of how big it has a potential of being if I hit.
Granted though.. Punch isn't very flashy.
True, it depends on playstyle and strategy. High-Drain spells are typically more useful if you let someone else fire the arrows, since chances are you'll still have a -1 on your actions when it's runtime.
As for the counterspelling argument: I only saw the rule while reading the Enchanting rules, and thought it was a nice bonus. To me, though, the Street Grimoire rule Triskavanski quoted is a pretty clear sign that once the spell goes off, you can use Spell Defense as part of the resisting bit.
