As long as I have played this has been the state of things. All anti-magical agenda is purely roleplay driven. Sometimes it is more popular, sometimes it is less popular. It really comes down to if players are willing to give up the quality of life spells offer to honor the story. As of right now it seems that they are not, which reflects on their characters, and thusly changes the story. I doubt the small mechanical changes you listed would change this state of affairs - and if Magic gets nerfed too much there would be no incentive to play one. Hogwarts seems to be choice of the playerbase.These changes along with mechanics that prevent effective hybridization of magic and melee skills (I can elaborate if you want) have given mages an essential niche and any serious anti-mage sentiment would need to be driven entirely by roleplay and against the incentives making friends with mages have which can’t be replaced effectively other ways.
Anti-magical sentiment is a part of Requiem's world history, however if it is not something players desire it might not be such in the future. Instead of nerfing Magic the only sustainable way to change their social desirability is to make other ways to achieve the same effects as their spells do. That is a long road and will require a lot of coding, but otherwise we just always find ourselves arguing that there is too much incentive to play a Witch or that there is too little of it.
As far as mechanics go I would agree with Toroic that rather than nerfing Magic alternatives to reach similar results should be made, and also would look at some epic level spell damages, but other than that I would not be after too many changes.Not wanting to hijack the thread, but I would ask Controll and Toroic how they would implement any changes or what they think would be the steps to accomplishing the bigger concepts of having players work towards creating that atmosphere in light of some of the potential pitfalls and friction points I pointed out?
As far as the story goes I would like to expand on the Civil War. Nothing creates activity like conflict, and this conflict is one of the most important ones on Requiem. It is true that there is no rallying call to those that do not condone with Magic, and that voicing opinions against it might lead to your death. This is of course something derived from the world's history, so it could be either acknowledged, or the staff could help the anti-magically aligned side to organize.
Months ago the cult had a goal of establishing a "safe" spot for those that did not approve of Magic. In Fort Praesidium you may get imprisoned and executed for demanding radical action against Witchcraft. Those efforts proved to bear no fruit as it became more and more evident that NPC factions were indifferent of player characters and their troubles.
Personally I would approve of a secondary RPG hotspot with NPC guardians to be established besides Fort Praesidium. Ideally with two hotspots travel between the two would be open for everyone, however one would be tolerant of Magic and the other would be intolerant of it. This way player characters would be free to make a stance for whichever side. Eventually either of them would likely end up conquered by the other faction, allowing the players to feel like they are making an impact on the world, even if it just over some small areas in the Quarantine Zone. Plus it would make a for a great plotline. Characters with archetypes need a place to meet; if you build a castle for players on a medieval shard knights and nobles can meet each other without OOC channels. If you build a pirate port, characters of those archetypes can meet each other without OOC channels.
During Beta all factions had a safe haven of sorts, and their internal conflict generated a load of roleplay.
But these are just my opinions, and the staff will naturally direct the story wherever they wish.