@cobaltasaurus Ah, bummer! Life went sideways on me unexpectedly and I dropped off the world for a bit. Returned to find the game no more! Sorry I missed the end, but totally understand. Thanks for giving us old timers a chance to relive the fun that was Darkwater!
If anyone who plays there is interested in keeping in contact with Bea-player, feel free to PM me here.

This is possibly the only thing that could make me stop lurking and post. So excited!

I think it ultimately comes down to what is fun, or not. Earning some shiny toy in a PRP is fun. Slogging through a half dozen scenes of "I am learning how to speak Spanish" because that's the requirement to increase a stat or something is (often, but not always!) a lot less fun.
As I only play WOD, I can only speak from that perspective. So, for me, being able to spend XP, whatever way it's earned, on skills and attributes is ideal. I'll usually be RPing this increase leading up to it anyway, such as pposing my charaacter joining a scene in their jogging gear if I'm working toward an Athletics raise, or perhaps getting caught with a 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' book before a Manipulation raise, but for the most part, that sort of thing is easily done off-screen and can be reflected through XP spends and a few poses.
But things which are gained in play- A title bestowed for acts of bravery, a sword forged from your blood sweat and tears during an epic quest, the a favor owed to you by a local authority figure...These should /generally/, in my opinion, be stuff that doesn't cost XP. The act of doing the plots and earning it should be enough. I've often found myself, as an ST, in the position of wanting to give a player something other than what they had 'officially' requested, based on the RP and the choices they'd made in a plot, but because they didn't have the XP, it wasn't something that I could do. Obviously there should be limits to this. Grinding for the shiny horde is lame. Gaining things appropriate to the story you're telling with your character is awesome.

Love this. I've always thought SF would make a great city to base a MU in.

@cobaltasaurus Ah, bummer! Life went sideways on me unexpectedly and I dropped off the world for a bit. Returned to find the game no more! Sorry I missed the end, but totally understand. Thanks for giving us old timers a chance to relive the fun that was Darkwater!
If anyone who plays there is interested in keeping in contact with Bea-player, feel free to PM me here.

This is possibly the only thing that could make me stop lurking and post. So excited!