IIRC, the most current errata on Aura changes it so that the power has to be bought to sustained, which increases the cost for Strike Auras by +2. IMO, this change is pretty stupid. I think a Strike Aura is far more balanced than Emotional Control Aura (which costs less than Strike or Quickness), since attacking odd saves is usually the way to go. But which one gets the cost increase? Another potential problem with Aura is that it's PL based, but still uses attack rolls to deliver its effect.
Corrosion/Disintegrate gets a cost increase for its ability to drain the toughness of objects and other things immune to Fort. For pure combat against living things, the cost doesn't need to change; affects objects could be flawed out without impacting killiness. Besides, Ryan actually has left over points in the corrosion slot of his array.
An equal PL character has only a 20% chance of failing saving throw, meaning that 80% of the time Clover's power fails and she has to make a save or Lose all her actions (and possibly defense bonus) untill she eventually makes the save. Even without the stunning a character's main power that fails 80% of the time against equal PL foes and would do worse against higher PL ones seems more like the Legion of Substitute Heros (that was actually a funny cartoon by the way)
I think the assumption of max saves is inaccurate. Generally speaking, a save at PL is pretty good. Ryan is at +15 boosted, Clover is a +11, Mark is at +10, and Anika is at +9. And some characters have +3 or +4. Even characters with good Will are generally looking at ~ 45% to fail - unless they HP.
And you didn't have to take one of the crappy flaws.
Staged Drain hasn't shown up in the errata, and other UP "fixes" haven't shown up either (even the Aura change is different between the errata and UP), so it's probably not doing to change. And I agree that that change is overly harsh. Making Drain remove points instead of ranks is a good enough fix for most things, I think.
It should always have been an option. A saving throw DC is equal to an opposed throw where the attacker takes 10. Having people shrug off a PL level power until they roll a crappy save isn't very heroic, especially when fiat to reroll garauntees they save. Sometimes you just have to succeed.
I don't really agree that heroic equals picking when you want to win. You can already gain an advantage via gaining +2 ranks from extra effort - sure, it's not as good as the same HP spent defensively. But MM already tends toward 1 shot, so I think stronger defensive hero points are an important system balance. Similarly, the whole point of having core saving throws is to limit the types of defenses to a reasonable number.
BTW, care to explain how the full version of XTREME EFFORT!!!! differs the from the supervision version:
Extra effort and hero points allow characters to accomplish a lot. However, there are those times when even extra effort isn’t enough and extraordinary effort is called for. In these cases, you may wish to use the following option.
Once per adventure (more or less at the GM’s discretion) a player can decide to use extraordinary effort. The player may spend any or all of the character’s remaining hero points as well as up to three fatigue results (which renders a normal character unconscious). These can apply to any of their normal uses, and the benefits stack. So a hero who uses extraordinary effort, expending three hero points and suffering two fatigue results, can apply five levels of extra effort to a task. The player cannot spend hero points (if there are any remaining) to offset the fatigue from extraordinary effort.
Ryan could honestly slaughter the entire rest of the group without much effort
Well maybe. In terms of a straight up fight, however, I think he'd have to mostly have to win via mobility kill. If he takes out Anika and Gilden, he'll have unmatched aerial speed (at least amongst the PCs; Kal and Aya are equal or better flyers) and would be able to rain down area blasts from far beyond the effective range of other characters. Otherwise, the weight of actions would bear him down - everybody rolls poorly eventually. And if the other characters are opening the fight, he loses most of his saves. Cassie winning init and using her freaking Stunning Attack feat (hint, hint) would be nasty. I think Anika and Gilden might have better chances since Possession and Mind Control can really even the odds, and their invisibility improves their attacks and defenses. Going at maximum brutality (not usually the case, fortunately), both of them are pretty nasty.
But really, in my game I wouldn't allow Ryan or Kelly without alterations. Toki is far more permissive than me. It's kind of like the pot calling the kettle black - you both tend to abuse the rules, so stop argueing about who does it better (or worse, depending on how you look at things).
). Considering it costs an action, that I could be using to Corrode somebody or do something else cool, it's pretty balanced and rules legal. I really only use Boost if I know a fight is coming ahead of time...it gets less showtime than some other APs I have. (And we all know that APs are really, really inexpensive...they generally give you far more use than you might generally get out of a few more skills or feats. No need to single out Boost 
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