The thing is, once you've got Rusty Alyce, her and Leve's upgrades (~4SS), Lazarus/Ashes & Dust, 1-2 Aboms, you've only got 20 or so soulstones left to spend anyway, an as you really want to have at least one more waif anchor you're probably only looking at three out of faction models tops, so I don't think it would be that much of a hindrance.
I've played against Leve a couple of times and although his personal mechanic is devious and restricts the schemes you can take against him I don't think that just his presence guarantees a loss or NPE. Every new Master I play against I have a 'He does WHAT? That's ridiculous!' moment, but that's just what it is, it's a moment and you learn to adapt. Rasputina's Ice Mirror seems absolutely bloody ridiculous the first few times but it's counterable.