The Tree of Life is obviously not a real tree somewhere with real Tarot images on it so there is NO 'real' system to draw from.

All we can do is try to understand cosmic forces which are at play in our lives using whatever system experience teaches us to be most accurate.

I personally don't find the 'traditional' placements of the tarot with the paths to be helpful or relevant. I have my own understanding of the paths and therefore my own Tree of Life with different tarot on their paths. It's whatever works for YOU. The tarot and tree of life are just symbols to try and help you. Symbols can be interchanged depending on what you're looking for.

It would even make more sense to me if the tarot/path associations were different on each different. It would make more sense to me if there were different tarot on the paths in Atziluth than in Briah for example.
Another way to say that would be to say that depending on the what you are using the Tarot for should depend on what the card REALLY means.

Unfortunately it's a subjective experience. Take astrology, Mercury rules Virgo, but for me, Mercury and Saturn rule it. This isn't traditional so I keep this to myself more often than not. But if we look at the Hermit Tarot card which rules Virgo, we're reminded of the 'Saturnal' aspect of Mercury rather than the more traditional trickster messenger of the gods aspect. Also in terms of Virgo ruling the harvest, doesn't the Empress card seem appropriate too? The Moon Card demonstrates Pisces, but for me it will always demonstrate Cancer. Unless it works for you then its not 'real' for you. Making it real is making it personal in my opinion.


As for
'Maybe on a scale of 1 to 10 (hehe), you could rate what you value in a deck's symbolism. 1 being innovation and 10 being tradition, 5 being equal parts familiarity and newness in symbolism. '

I don't use Thoth so I can't really comment. I find it too dark and too pretentious. It's not more difficult or anything like that. There seems to be a hidden consensus that the Thoth deck is only for 'advanced' readers. I agree 'newbies' would do well to not start with this deck but unless your own mind-set is geared toward the Thoth deck there's no greater point in reading with it then in reading Joe Bloggs Magic Tarot Deck of Pretty Flower and Happy Fairies (or whatever...). For someone else that deck would be even more beneficial than Thoth.
I like the rider-waite deck and so what I'm tryin to say is that everyone responds to a different part of the card. For me the symbols are reminders. I've done accurate readings with playing cards tho I find them too limited to mundane matters like jobs, falling in love etc, and not suitable for more spiritual questions.

For anyone reading this...
I meant to mention two other systems I think are of interest to this topic:

Hebrew Letters (and their meanings) and Alchemy

Along with Astrology, these two aspects seem pretty essential to the card symbol associations of the Tree. I understand that the Major Arcana is supposed to represent the stages of Alchemy (the spiritual kind), and every Major Arcana card is associated with the Hebrew letter of its path. Important? Probably. Any ideas/info on these welcome too.