Dive, as in Phoenix Dive that doesn't even unlock until Act 2 (It might actually unlock at level 8 with the cave vendor, but I stopped checking him on my first playthrough after level 7.5 or so and Gareth always had it *after* the boat fight and never before), while also dumping a point into Scoundrel soley for one ability early game? Or were you actually dumping two points here for Cloak and Dagger, which is what you meant with "Dive"? Crit? Are you serious? You have almost no crit rate early on, and Savage Sortilege isn't a talent you would grab until your 3rd or 4th talent point anyway.
They're in two separate categories, and you have plenty of crit starting at around 16 or so once you have access to frames.
Glass Cannon? LOL. Unless you're also dumping points into WIT early (which means you're going to be doing even less damage), Glass Cannon is a hindrance as much as a help.
You don't need that much wit, there are breakpoints, and again the multipliers don't matter as much till later when the base damage has scaled high enough.
When the stars align and RNGesus blesses you then sure, what you're suggesting works. That's just pretty much almost never.
Have you even actually played this version of the game?
As for your last statement, that's pretty much entirely incorrect. I even just stated how I ran a with a group of four elemental casters and it was awful. You don't have unlimited spells, memory slots, talents or stat points to do everything you're suggesting on a single character. Your random "Uh, you can do..." scenariors aren't even practical until much later on.
So you're saying that you're incapable of dealing 300 magic damage in one round at level 7/8?
Pre-Level 8
2 Geo, 2 in Poly, 1 Scoundrel, X in Pyro.
You need, at minimum, 8 slots. So one point in Memory.
Impalement - ~61-68
Flesh Sacrifice
Fireball - 75-83
-Environmental (double surface proc, once from fireball, once from oil) - 36
Nova - 131-145
Adrenaline
Searing Daggers - 21-23
Medusa Active - 46
So you're saying the above has no chance of CCing anyone? And that it isn't possible at level 8? And that it requires too many points? That's, by the way, a Glass Cannon build. Medusa active could be replaced with a grenade or sleep or whatever you want if you don't want to pre-cast it.
You do realize that Int, while valuable, isn't that big of a deal in the early levels? In order for Int to surpass Glass Cannon with Wits, under many circumstances, you need to first and foremost already have a character who is designated to go first. Second, you need to have enough of an Int difference that 2AP under any circumstance cannot cover the damage difference.
If you look at your own observations you'll notice that pumping Int and dumping a shitload into Pyro doesn't make for that much of a difference early on. Later on, the Int you have will compete or surpass Glass Cannon until you reach the point where you're using Savage Sortilege. Again, though, you only need enough Wits to match certain break points so the difference does grow over the campaign but it isn't linear so depending on where you make comparisons you'll have differences in how much damage the Int difference is leading by.
As for your comments in regards to the other combinations... I think you're just being dishonest. Laser Ray and Phoenix Dive are available at the start of Reaper's Coast. Dive is possibly available at level 8 if you happen to RNG into it. That doesn't really feel like 'until much later'. It's literally two encounters off and a possible respec.
Dive -> Ray + Nova alone will strip most mobs of their Magic Armor, some times you need to throw in a little extra like Searing Daggers / Combust.
