You're right, reflective wards that don't go away when bypassed and last a full day are lame. Veils that cover entire building instead of just individuals are also lame. So is any of the other absolutely amazing things thaumaturgy can do with the same number of shifts it takes evocation to do even basic stuff. The player who thinks he gets everything at speed and methods of evocation is dead wrong, and he should know it if he reads the rules for soulfire. It is still damn poweful, even without speed and methods of evocation, because for the price of thaumaturgy and channeling, you get thaumaturgy, channeling, and instant toughness ignoring abilities.
Lame as in "no where near as effect as thaumaturgy as thaumaturgy."
To veil an entire building requires shifts for block strength, and 2 shifts per zone effected.
So let's say it is a small warehouse (so 4 zones) and you want a Good block. That is 11 shifts of power. Not counting duration (you may argue it defaults to until sunrise, but maybe you just need a scene, so whatever).
If you have a Lore of 4, you need to get 7 complexity. There is no time for declarations, so it probably means 4 invokes (and those same aspects can't be used for the discipline roll). If you are feet wet (which the OP's case is), your conviction is 4 or less, or discipline is 4 or less (the other will be less). So doing such a veil fast is not feasible (you have to take consequences for the initial mental stress AND backlash).
So maybe you have Lore 4, and Discipline or Conviction 4 (and the other at 3, or both others at 3).
And sponsored magic specifically says that a player can only borrow ONE fate point from their sponsor per spell. So the example above requires 3 personal fate points in additional to the borrowed one. The book doesn't say to still meet complexity with your Lore or to skip that, but even if you do get to ignore it, it is still hard for a character to whip out 11 shifts of power.
So yeah, I think thaumaturgy at evocation speed is lame and way over-hyped.
Maybe it allows your to do a Tracking Spell (YS 298) fast, and that is neat and useful, but most big things that thaumaturgy is normally used for are beyond conventional characters (of course a ridiculous -19 refresh wizard can do whatever, whenever).