The reason I bring this up is because I can see the potential need for the party to go through multiple fights without resting between so that they can get worn down over time, but not so likely smacked down instantly. In a situation where even an optimized character can be defeated in about two hits, this isn't very possible.
Philsys isn't intended to be D&D where you can be hit ten times with a sword and then go on to slay an army before your three-o-clock thug-battering. You aren't supposed to be able to go through multiple fights without resting because
people (the real ones, mind) generally can't do that.
So yeah. An optimized character will be defeated in two hits, but is dealing out the same damage to the NPC. A "non-combat" PC is likely not chasing street thugs and the GM shouldn't demand such things of them totally arbitrarily.
There's nothing wrong with building an NPC to be on par with the PCs, and I would argue that it makes no sense to have a separate "cannon fodder mook NPC" category of sample sheets.
One last note.
So what I'm basically asking for is the design for the equivalent of a street thug.
Does this mean that someone who doesn't rely on formal training and has learned everything on their own can't be good at what they do?
Man. I have to wonder why player characters bother levelling up at that rate. I mean, a street thug has learned by going out and getting in fights. Isn't that what PCs do?
Summary: Mooks are largely unnecessary. Mooks are boring. Mooks have no excuse to be mooks because odds are they've learned their skills the same way their "disadvantaged" PC enemies have.