Thank you so much for all your effort, everyone! Just started learning the expansions this weekend after years of only playing the base game, and now i see why you all prefer this so much - this has been helpful in getting me off the ground =)
EDIT: Another thought i had re: why Ishtar is weak - besides money being an issue if you're all-in on science, the gods present so many other threats you have to defend against for a science win. There's just so often immediate pressure from Ra, Neptune, Hades if the opponent has a big political play with him, etc. Plus the ever-looming threat of the Gate...it's just hard to find time for a Law token amidst all the surrounding chaos. Science symbols don't present nearly that level of other dangers.
The other issue is that with the progress token row, you know at the start of the game whether Law is available or not. With the gods, on the other hand, you commonly have no way of knowing whether Ishtar is in the game until Age II. This makes it very risky to commit to heavy science in Age I, as you're pretty much screwed against a good player if you try it and she's not there. And if you don't get a bunch of science in Age I, a Law token win probably isn't in the cards anyway. Basically, the token in goddess form is much less of a sure thing than the token appearing on the row.
