Structured magic meanwhile requires shaping the mana explicitly / needs something more / similar. One can access this magic either through divine favour/innate talent/some other non-meritocratic source (presented as LitRPG or otherwise), OR by doing it the Hard Way.
This way you can either box in what they can do, or massively retard their initial growth speed while boosting their eventual OPness because they'll be able to create spells outside the confines of the easy way.
Given that we have two protagonists, you could even give both to them, but I'd argue against creating such a schism between them. I'd prefer making both of them do it the hard way, and then have their strengths and weaknesses complement each other.
Just letting everyone know that I won't be able to do a post this Sunday . I have about 1 hours free time from now until then so I won't be able to write much...
Good news! After waiting 2 weeks for my new laptop to arrive they finally told me they lost it! Yay . So I’m hoping the new one will arrive sometime next week. I’d advise anyone buying tech in the future buy it from the store or only in the direst of circumstances, from the Internet... Thank you for your patience