I don't believe that there is anything remotely problematic about that, and it's especially weird for me as someone who loves 4e DnD to see this objection when it is literally just 4e powers with different names. It's the same complaint as the "powers are all just spells renamed, everyone does the same thing", and I found it baffling then as now.
I doubt a response to any other part of this would be productive, but I felt I should respond to this.
Powers are
actually generic. They literally correspond to
all possible pre-defined actions. If an action is pre-defined, it's a power. There is an exact, one-to-one correspondence between "is a predefined action" and "is a power." Every pre-defined action is a power, down to even
basic attacks, and every power is a pre-defined action.
Spells are
not the end-all, be-all of pre-defined actions. They are significantly more limited than that, in numerous ways, which you have repeatedly and blithely dismissed with less than a full sentence. Those limitations are the problem, and your refusal to even momentarily consider them is a significant stumbling block for having any kind of conversation here.
Edit: One other response.
Like you list the artificer, so I'm guessing you would completely disregard the narrative impact of casting via tools and the encouragement to treat this as making things to create the spell effect, because the end result is the same and it still costs a spell slot, and whatever else?
I listed the artificer because
absorb elements is an artificer spell--as well as being a spell on the class list of every other class I mentioned. The only reason I listed those classes is because they are the classes which can cast
absorb elements, which just happens to be the alphabetically first 1st-level spell from the ranger spell list (and most lists it's on, since it starts with "ab.") There was no further motive than to note that this spell effect is 100% identical for all of these classes that cast it, and the slots used for it are 100% fungible.
However, in this case, you are mistaken. While artificers do "cast through tools,"
absorb elements is not an M spell, and thus is not cast that way. The artificer's tools are not involved. It
does have somatic components though, which are described thusly: "Spellcasting gestures might include a forceful gesticulation or an intricate set of gestures. If a spell requires a somatic component, the caster must have free use of at least one hand to perform these gestures." "Forceful gesticulation or an intricate set of gestures" that can be done single-handed. What else should I be calling it? (And no, I
don't consider that an interesting or meaningful distinction from "cast through spell focus," which is what every 5e spellcaster does with M spells.)
Cool, how does he gain information from nature beyond what is possible by mundane means?
Via supernatural abilities which are not spells.
How does he counter the highly magical natural world in order to protect settlements from said nature and protect and preserve nature from the excesses of expanding civilization?
Via supernatural abilities which are not spells. Like how Lay On Hands, Song of Rest, Inspiration Dice, Channel Divinity, and Ki are supernatural abilities which are not spells, though they may sometimes interact with spell mechanics (e.g. that Cleric variant CD that restores a spell slot or certain Monk actions which allow you to cast spells by spending Ki.)
What does he do that isn't doable as a Fighter?
Supernatural abilities which are not spells. Same as several other classes which have supernatural abilities that are not spells, and thus cannot be used by Fighters.
I am dead serious. The supernatural
should not be shoehorned into "spells and only spells."