I always look at it as “it’s the neutral slot nothing you can do about it”
I think two stone skins might make alchemist more easier for scum to deal with, In general being a physician that is un-convertable seems un-fun to me so I generally don’t claim day 1, a lot of others on the other hand will just open claim for the easy meta win.
Brilder Mercenary in general has never been that great of a neutral for me in general just easy to win and boring wincon in comparison to the original mercenary design, not saying I hate getting mercenary it’s just not as good as most other neutrals.
And that thing called pretender by far is the worst neutral ever created by mankind.