Hi, scholar here. I'm a post-doctoral researcher working in a university research group. Just wanted to chime in about the Navani is/isn't a scholar topic.
Navani is absolutely a scholar. She saw a physical phenomenon, developed a theory and designed experiments to prove her theory. Not all discoveries start from nothing: as someone mentioned already, the person who discovered a way to create fire that wasn't "wait for the next lightning storm next to a tree and then hope you're lucky enough that a lightning is going to strike that tree and set it on fire" deserves all credit. Gravity was observed before a law was postulated. Also, the fact that originally she used to be a patron more than a scholar herself doesn't mean she isn't one. When I was working towards getting my PhD degree I was working under the supervision of the head of my group, who wasn't doing any research himself because all of his time was taken by supervising, looking for new funding, managing the group and get a bunch of completely different people to work together (honestly, the more I talk to him, the more in awe I am at what he does). I would have never grown into a real researcher without the help of, the supervision and the discussions with my supervisor. I would have never got where I got without him and my research and my discoveries are definitely his too. And I want to also point out that (and I am talking from experience here), managing a group of researchers takes much more than leadership skills, it takes a researcher with leadership skills.
As for Gavilar already having an anti-voidlight sphere. You're all assuming someone in his group created it, who is to say he didn't get it from someone else like Venli got the sphere with Ulim from Axindweth? To be honest, that seems the most logical explanation to me. The Sons of Honor didn't seem to be a group full of scholars.
As for whether she's worthy or not of being a Bondsmith, I haven't made up my mind yet (finished RoW last night, still processing), but I do agree that there are so many who have grown into their ideals instead of having them as a starting point. I mean, look at Venli: she wasn't worth being a knight radiant when she found Timbre and look at all the squires. Some of them became radiants only because they were at the right place at the right time.
