Another thing to consider is the use of scrolls and items to make up for the spells, and spell ups. I've thought about this myself. I could drop all my spell ranks and then cap out all weapon skills for max redux, and end up with a close to but slightly higher AS. Like you, I'd lose some defense, but I can easily get most of that back with the minor elementals and minor spirituals. Basically everything except 430. This would be going back to the method I used to use before I had enough EXP to make it worth it to get the spell levels. Unfortunately I sold my 425 and 430 self-chargers. That would be the shit right now. You could get the best of both worlds that way.
A downside with scrolls/items is that dispell in high levels can wipe out a ton of your spells, and you wouldn't get them back via mana spellup.
Anyway, I tested it on the server and it was close to a wash. I think my AS was slightly higher, DS was slightly lower, and going full on martial mastery without KS was more tedious for spell ups but otherwise doable.
I don't use Lich. If you want to do business with me, contact me via PM, IG, or on AIM. Or maybe use smoke signals. Don't like it, get off of my lawn.