The Sorcerer is built similarly to the Barbarian. A Barbarian's Rages are very few in number, lasting only a minute. However, it has plenty of baked-in stuff.
Sorcerers have very little "baked-in stuff." In fact, they have the most restrictive set of at-will abilities of any class. Minimum HP, minimum armour and weapon proficiency, minimum skill proficiency. They have one more cantrip than the average caster, and that's it.
Some sorcerer subclasses have a lot of at-will abilities, but don't confuse a subclass with the class. The only wild sorcerer ability that doesn't key off long-rest resources is Spell Bombardment.
The Wild Mage has the ability to potentially regain sorcery points and even spell slots with Wild Magic surges (Theoretically you could regain a 6-9th level slot back if you only used them first).
Unless your DM is generous enough to allow a surge on pretty much every spellcast, the chances of this are so remote as to be inconsequential. The only reliable outcome of wild surges is getting to use Tides of Chaos more.
The Sorcerer is all about preventing waste (twin/extended/empowered).
On the contrary, the sorcerer is about output, not efficiency. It can expend long rest resources faster than any other class. For example, if you Twin a Haste spell. While it's up, it's twice as effective as a wizard's Haste spell. That's nice. But if the fight ends next round or if you lose concentration, you've paid the equivalent of two 3rd level slots and suffer twice the Haste dump for very little gain. Powerful when it works, especially wasteful when it doesn't.
The wizard (also the land druid) is the one who prevents waste, through one of the best ritual magic features in the game and by being better able to tailor his spells to the situation thanks to a broader spell selection. A wizard is more likely able to target the precise weak save, or area, or damage type while the sorcerer has to go with the best fit (if
any of his spells fit) and decide whether or not to turn his spell up to 11.
I'm currently compiling a spreadsheet of every spell, cross-referenced against meta-magic. I'm finished the Sorcerer spells, moving onto the other classes.
Smart move. Metamagic shapes a sorcerer's theme and how it plays more than the subclass, IMO.