The few times I ran sessions with players seriously interested in psionics, they became very psi-oriented. Due to psionics' dissipation with age, the characters chose to muster out early and go looking for an institute (rather than the more typical practice of remaining in service for long periods of times to gain lots of skills). For the more daring, I did allow immediate search for an institute, with no enlistment if one were found quickly (normal skill acquisition was a slow affair, though, since they had to be learned "real-time" after finishing with the institute).
As a result, the characters' psi skills outweighed their mundane ones, naturally resulting in their use to achieve desired goals. However, this naturally produced suspicion and official trouble. So, it was clear from the start when a set of characters would be playing a psi-centered game rather than a "normal" one (which makes sense, given the underground nature of psionics). In only a few cases did "normal" characters undertake to develop psi potential, resulting in weak talents that didn't much interfere with the normal course of things.