Agent Cooper
Lynch's Creation
I think that before they buffed up the Tradition/Liberty trees there was more of a tendency to see early policies as "wasted". I do remember wishing I didn't have to take them before I got far enough to open the Patronage tree back when.
I always play with 'save policies' (and save promotions for that matter) on in the settings. In my opinion this should be the default setting since the Social Policies system is such a heavily rigid system to dance with, that you want to make sure that not a singe sp is wasted.