Definition of talent
1a : a special often athletic, creative, or artistic aptitude
b : general intelligence or mental power
Definition of growth
1a(1) : a stage in the process of growing : size (2) : full growth
b : the process of growing
c : progressive development : evolution
Definition of versatile
1 : embracing a variety of subjects, fields, or skills also : turning with ease from one thing to another
Definition of ingenuity
1a : skill or cleverness in devising or combining : inventiveness
b : cleverness or aptness of design or contrivance
Definition of curiosity
1 : desire to know:
a : inquisitive interest in others' concerns : nosiness
b : interest leading to inquiry
Definition of skill
1a : the ability to use one's knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance
b : dexterity or coordination especially in the execution of learned physical tasks
2 : a learned power of doing something competently : a developed aptitude or ability
Growth seems to relate more towards physical size, current maturity, speed of learning, or potential. I think there was mention of a soft cap in the description of the stat. The argument above is valid if everyone has has the same max potential, but growth only the limiting factor on how fast you can reach your max potential, then growth is slightly bit misleading, but most replacements have similar subtext. Tame and Timid both also seem to suffer from lack of usefulness, as once you cap loyalty and/or submission, they become less relevant compared to combat and productivity stats, potentially penalizing you for investing in them. Short term/long Term pay offs, where the long term part is seemingly 0 pay off.
I'd probably like to have growth/timid/tame slaves (really) early, but slow witted, fearless, wild slaves later. Combat and crafting stats are just so much more useful early on that it makes it better to start with the the powerful slaves and stay with them.
A slave with a good growth stat, should probably increase the soft cap, and unlock classes faster, giving it long term and short term benefits to compete. A pure growth character should probably be pretty skilled classwise, but not very good at any particular things due to a lack of stat synergy.