Mil-Tech Bard
Your list of weapons and operators reveals that you are leaning toward the presumption that if the text does not tell us that the non-gifted can use something then they can't. That is backwards. Unless the text explicitly says that a gift is required for something everyone can do it. This is clear from two aspects of the story.
First, this is clear from the details the authors have chosen to give us. Again and again they tell us that a Gift is required to use something. They never directly tell us that something can be used without a gift. We only know for sure something can be used without a gift when we see a known non-gifted using it and the only known non-gifted in the series are identified as Garthan who left Mythal. This is either a very very weird choice of details to provide or a clear sign that everything else can be used by a non-Gifted.
Second, the omnipresence of Arcane technology within Arcana's society makes it inconceivable to me that everyone can't use it. The most revealing quote is from Chapter 38 of Hell's Gate:
The Sharonian civilization isn't built around the laws of magic at all."
Skirvon was sitting bolt upright in his chair now, staring at him. So was mul Gurthak, but there was something besides simple astonishment in the two thousand's eyes.
"But—" the senior diplomat sputtered. "But how in the gods' names does anyone build a civilization without it?"
He glanced around mul Gurthak's office, an austere frontier room which nevertheless boasted more than a dozen magic-powered appliances, from his own PC to the lighting to the insect-repelling spell to the quietly turning blades of the ceiling fan, all in plain view, and doubtless many others in storage in the various cabinets.
"I'm sorry, Sir Jasak, but Uthik is right. It sounds . . . impossible. They'd live under appallingly crude conditions. People in a place like that would be little better than barbarians!"
We don't see Arcanans doing much besides fighting and giving and receiving reports but what we do see repeats this pattern. The boat's ramp hovers, as do the stretchers, field rites involve magic, when Jasek fights vos Hoven he restrains him with a crystal not a rope, standard combat helmets contain several spells, scouts carry recon crystals. We even see a couple of things, the stretchers and the binding spell which are turned on by the push of a button. In sum, either everyone is gifted, which directly contradicts the text, or everything where it doesn't tell us gifts are required can be used by non-gifted.
You are of course correct about Arcana's absolute dependence on the Gifted to provide power for their whole society including their army. I am not, however, convinced that they need a disproportionatly large percentage of gifted at the front to deploy their full combat power.
As regards the Sharona's lack of dependence on their talents, in the very short term maybe but I would not presume that just because we could do something at their tech level without talents they can. How common flickers are is unclear but at times they are all the way down to the
squad level. For example when the Arcanan parley rode up after the battle of Fort Salby it was the "Flicker assigned to his squad" that the observers called to send the message. But Arthag's platoon didn't have a Flicker assigned to it in Hell's Gate and their weren't very many Flickers among the 400 men under chan Tesh's command when Arcana attacked so while they are common how common is unclear. Regardless given how frequently we have seen them used in combat I seriously doubt that the Sharonans could coordinate even a small battle without them. And I think it is certain that they couldn't supply an army over any distance without voices. They just don't have the experience with other forms of communication.
In sum, both sides are radically dependent on their special abilities for now. The Arcanans perhaps a bit more then the Sharonans but I doubt that is significant. There relative combat power is what will be decisive not dependence on gifts/talents.
Nicholas
