I hear ya.
It sounds like you've got one of the spots that isn't worth having in the first place.
Unfortunately, the current system is quite apparently not designed to be "fair" in the sense that it ends well for everyone eventually. Sometimes you get the good ones, and sometimes you get the bad.
FWIW, my last shapeshifter could have taken barrier attunement twice after already re-rolling his minor form, and I think I had a whopping 1k imm XP. This was before I started PKing much too. Luckily though, shapeshifters aren't anywhere near as edge-dependant as every other mage class, so unless you're a shapeshifter, taking those edges is a bummer.