I haven't seen a well implemented version either, it's either been a case of requiring prophecy over strategy or just plain never using anything ever in case you need it at some point in the future, and using your infinite supply of magic time powers (save/load) instead.
Unfortunately it's also unrealistic to base the game around anything else, since this game had a mana system the combat encounters are either designed around resource management or not designed at all. If trivial combat encounters are to mean anything the game needs a core of resource management.
However to implement a system like that well the game needs to be balanced before the encounter design.
The question is really, how can a game with a badly implemented resource management system be fun? It's not actually as hard as it may seem, Baldurs Gate had terrible balancing but was a classic of the genre. I think the key is to make the resources something you want to maintain but always have a steady supply of. In Baldurs Gate it was sleep which was a weird system of using story continuity as a stick to beat the players with. I think cash works well, if any resource can be replaced with a noticeable, if inconsequential supply of cash and cash is always in plentiful supply but always less than the things the player might want to buy a player never really has to worry about running out, but always wants to conserve it.
If the game can't be balanced and resource management is wholly broken then it's probably best to just let the players use whatever broken crap they want. 1 overpowered ability is worse than 20. Just throw in some overpowered warrior abilities and focus on what you can fix.
