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If your character has learned something from one scenario, or through pathfinder training, then you should represent that by putting points into the appropriate knowledge

I absolutely hate the power creep that archery has become. My Eyes of the Ten outing went horribly due to it.

Im almost entirely sure I played in the same eyes group.

All in all archery is probably a bit too easy, its just been given too many legs up (seeking, weapon blanches, deadly aim, cluster shot, rapid/multishot, snap shot, often early access improved precise shot). But two wrongs dont exactly make a right. Archery being strong doesnt mean we need to proliferate the overpowerdness. Leave pummeling charge out as it stands.

Maybe this mechanic wasnt meant to be representative of the lore but...

I was gonna write a guide but I got lazy, maybe I still will but my initial impressions:
Aeon: Worse than regular summons, cant even use for sacred summons. Edit: I forgot the theletos added to the lvl4 list is also Cr7, not that great for a Cr7, but outclasses any of the standard Cr3 summons for the spell level. The akhana at 9th has 1 raise dead SLA and 2 restorations, abuse away.
Agathion: Gives leonal at level 8 while summon good monster gives it at 9, pretty alright but the lower level monsters arent worth it
Angel: Adds manadic/movanic devas which you get from the feat but add good aligned options at levels there wouldnt be any otherwise for sacred summoning
Archon: Adds legion and shield archons which the feat adds, neither are great but no other lawful good options those levels for sacred summons
Asura: Adds a CR 7 summonable with SM4 so... theres that. Aghasura is probably flat better than bone devil at same level offensively but is huge
Daemon: Pretty much the only way to get neutral evil things so if thats your thing it adds a lot of options. Leukos and Piscos at lvl7 both seem usable, lvl9 has true sight energy drain and 3 enervations, meladaemon at 8th with horrid wilting, 3 quickened magic missles, waves of fatigue. Decent overall- some options have auras and gazes, careful of friendly fire
Div: Nothing stands out, mostly for flavor (but not at all bad)
Inevitable: adds 2 options the feat doesnt (at 8th and 9th), Zelekhut at lvl7 has true sight one of the earliest options I know, kolyarut at will enervation and 3 quickened suggestions, marut is CR 15 might be the highest or tied for highest Cr summon available, pretty good overall
Kyton: Not many options but the 9th level interlocutor has breath of life
Protean: Naunets at 6th can get through some material DRs, Imentesh at 9th is bad cr for the levl (Cr 10) but has permanent freedom of movement if you need that. With 4d6 sneak attack if you can summon it into flanking against something with bad ac it could actually probably do okay. Not a lot of added options from the ring and the feat adds the immentesh at 8th level instead
Psychopomp: None of the options are too combat focused and you get the same summons from the feat but get catrina at 4th instead of 5th (still pretty bad)
Qlippoth: All have horrific appearance, watch for friendly fire or turn it off. Shoggti at 6th have touch attack 1d4 wis damage, augnagar at 9th is huge with 30ft reach.

All the 3rd level options added are basically the same, only useful for commune but that has 10 min cast time.
Barring a few outliers (adhukhait asura) or for the purposes of sacred summons none of these would really be must have items, or they can save you a feat on summon good/neutral monster. Most of the time the options just dont compare to the equivalent level summoned animal with the appropriate smite going.

If pfs continues to tie in with the adventure paths this season will be worth sitting through to see the tie in with the Hells Rebels announced ap.

There is more than just the no pvp rule at work. Many other situations are covered better by the "dont be a jerk" rule.

I have a bard who had the masterpiece. I still invested in knowledges so its no big loss but in general rebuilds should err on the side of being generous.
A small issue I have is that knowledges are often the only way for the gm to give players some of the pages of background in a scenario that they might not otherwise get and anything that encourages knowledges is a good thing in my book.
My main issue, however, is that of all the things to ban they pick this. Oh well, looks like there is some room on that double barrel gunslinger train.

The first time my level 11 at the time Cleric used her morningstar was to coup de grace a monster. Since she got her weapon dirty she had to buy another one. A gold one.

In the time it would take to be able to afford that I would hope someone would have the time to look through some magic items.

Anyway I play in a pretty high optimization area so it seems like most people know all the tricks. A good starter list is the survival 101 blogpost. I consider a jingasa of the fortunate soldier almost mandatory. For forced social situations a mask of stony demeanor can give you a decent bluff bonus. If you have the AP the dream journal of the pallid seer is pretty alright. Weapon blanches and potion sponges with touch of the sea in them are nice and cheap. The first time someone encounters a clear spindle ioun resonant effect they normally make the I don't believe it face. Boots of the cat are pretty common. It's 10k but an unfettered shirt can save your life. At some point a martial should get a swarmbane clasp. People forget the small stuff like a crowbar or portable ram to knock down doors. Enemies don't sunder a lot but a fortifying stone on an expensive brittle weapon like a bow is good.

There is a headband slot item, the headband of fortunes favor, that extends the duration of luck bonuses, specifically including the luck domain power, by 1 round. Costs 8k or so and also gives a +1 luck bonus to saving throws. It would probably not be efficient but you could gain the domain's benefit for yourself with the item, or give it to a friend who might not be using their headband slot.

Despite the difficulty I think this was an enjoyable run and was pretty well received in our area. We ran 5 tables at our store, ours was the third to finish and we had one death and that was the only one I heard of for the day.

Area Venture lieutenant Matt had set up some spectacular looking 3d terrain(See here) so we were all jostling to play at that table. In the end we were the only table of 5 and the others went with 4. I was the only pregen, Oloch, and we had a lvl4 dual wield fighter, 2 witch, 4 monk, 4 oracle/pally. I could easily see how having actual characters at level 4 along greatly added to our success but we didnt have any tables of all pregens to compare to.

We possibly could have wiped on the rolling pyramid. After trampelling first round our gm had it single attack the highest ac target (he hit the pyramid last) the second round as a bit of a respite. Our witch was down after the first trample but was lifelinked. If the thing trampelled again only the monk would have been up and only if he made his ref save. But because of the oradin channeling we survived and whittled down the pyramid over 4 or so rounds(the fighter crit once which hastened the affair).

For the mimic we thought the lid looked heavy so 4 of us each took a corner and grabbed to lift. Woooops.

For the last fight everyone failed their aura saves but the oradin and I managed to succeed on a reroll. Had we not of been prepared with rerolls it could have been a tpk right there with 2 coup de gras a round coming in. Anyway the mummy downs the pally and, the pally having been the first one in the tomb, has the sphinx full attack him causing the oradin to be dead dead, but he didnt have mummy rot. The mummy crit our monk and gave him mummy rot but he stayed up and we ended up killing the boss before anything else eventful happened.

The oradin ended up being raised by his father who was playing and posessed a debt to the society boon, only having the required fame because he was level 4.

So afterwards we all said it was a fun adventure but agreed it was probably less so for the guy that died. It will probably never be run again now that free RPG day is over. We did have a couple new people show up to try out the system and while I wasnt playing with them it seemed evident from another table that they were enjoying themselves.

I see people do the save thing but with spells, when the dm rolls high its always "Oh good thing I was only casting a first level spell!..." Same with casting defensively, actually.

My pet annoyance is when someone goes to roll for something like sense motive or perception to detect traps or search a room, sees they rolled low, and then has to call everyone else to come make the same roll.

Well that and people thinking you need to hold a summit meeting every round to discuss tactics.

Optimizing doesnt limit your ability to roleplay, optimizing greatly reduces the amount of character concepts you can explore in a game and still be able to roleplay them.

Can you roleplay a tiefling paladin found abandoned and raised by fey? The wizard whos ancestor invented the fireball spell and hunts wayangs in his spare time? And happens to have a rabbit or a dodo or a scorpion tacked into the background somewhere? Yeah, of course. But if you will only roleplay these things than optimizing has cost your ability to roleplay by forcing your character to develop based on mechanical restraints rather than organically... like a character. Opportunity costs are costs.

Generally optimizers are better roleplayers because they simply play more. But to say optimizing in a game does not preclude, nor infringe upon, the ability to roleplay in the same game is stretching it a bit far. Unless, I guess, if you only ever roleplay the same Kicky McKickAss tactical genius...

but with different accents and outfits!

I think what makes a pally seem overpowered might be that everything they have is pretty... obvious. You dont have to work to make a good pally, everything good they get is just handed to you. There arent really many choices or ways to "mess up" a paladin. Compare a pally to an optimzed (other martial) and they may look similar, but compare two completely new players, one making a pally and one a barbarian and the situation will probably look pretty favorable on the paladin side.

You are assuming foregone conclusions. The "hard" part is using the available resources to turn something that might appear unwinnable into something winnable or in making sure you are prepared to always have resources on hand to be able to turn an unwinnable situation into a winnable one.

Warpriest could be an option as well, they can use their fervor ability to self buff as a swift action to cast divine favor. That is what I am trying next for PFS anyway.
Overall archeologists are probably the best with it as their luck bonus applies to the most , they are also pretty great without the trait.

I've heard a good rule of thumb is to make your character at least as competent as one of the iconic pregens. Some concepts probably wont compare too directly but, hey, its what the scenarios are supposed to be balanced around.

Personally with each character I make I am optimizing them less and less as I find it simply unnecessary.

Play what you want and dont worry over 1 to hit at level one

Strictly speaking they dont seem to get the summon natures ally spells added to their spell list at a reduced spell level like base summoners do with some of the summon monster spells. Either another reason they are plain worse or another reason to allow OPs interpretation.

What level range? Overall it seems like PFS is geared towards the type of players you mentioned, especially with the oust of faction missions

The Gods Market Gamble (1-5)

As well as the Blackros arc ones already mentioned. If you are frustrated as a GM by players steamrolling scenarios this probably isnt the best recourse.