1: food. This is bad incase you actually have your hands full, good if your underwater. Or walking. Pain if your making food for another.
2: Thornheart and spores I aggrea wholeheartedly in you on that point. Make it ither way, allow cleanse to have a minor chance of curing them perhaps.
3: Stonger cures... bad bad idea. Healers with another is extreemly powerfull in the way they are. And them fillets as you put it are quite a high rank spell.
4: Gating is powerfull as it is. They are not meant to be killing machines. A strongsuit of shapeshifters is their ability to be able to be hard to target at times.
5: Mass spells I only see the transmuter having. Mass sanc... *drool* The only one I could see work is a mass blessing spell. Or a chant bless .

A new point or not, healers with lagging equipment is quite powerfull, a defending healer is extreemly powerfull, heck fighting the empire with a healer present makes raiding extreemly difficult, much moreso than any other cabal. Healers in themselves could perhaps gain some supplications a bit earlier, and get some that are special for their faith. That is something I would enjoy seeing. Spells according to sphere/faith. Toss inn one or two at the final ranks. Heck you are actually a high priest of some GOD... or DIETY if you prefer that.

Just my few cents
LH