The commit is a straight up nerf imo, if I'd taken Ash since then I'd have been thoroughly wrongfooted by it.
Move Scrying to 2* to encourage more use of it, and shift the skill boost to
3* and Clarity/SInv to 4*. The skill boost also depends on piety rank so having
it available slightly later should make it more noticeable when it kicks in.
At 2* piety you'll probably be in Lair, not a place where scrying is overly useful imo. The first place I'd use it would likely be the Orc 4 vault - if you do Lair first you should be up to 4* piety at least by then. Early skill boosts are of far more value (as is getting SInv and clarity earlier, when those orc wizards/unseen horrors/disappearing casters can be big menaces). The comment about making the boost more noticeable is a red herring; at low levels, getting just a couple of points of EV/AC, a bit more stealth etc. makes the game easier.
My only win is with Ash (a DrIE). I used scrying (an ability I really like and don't hesitate to use) 35 times in a 4-rune game, mainly between XL 19 and 24, which suggests Vaults, Depths and Elf.
I used Transfer Knowledge once, but the log doesn't indicate precisely where or what I did; it was between XL 13-15, so probably late Lair. I think it may have been to get Freezing Cloud online quickly.