It's a matter of granularity. Yes, of course you don't run into melee with your Wizard. That's not my point. Forest, trees, and all that.
My Wizard, Fighter, Rogue, Invoker, Artificer, etc. all have 2 at-wills, 1 level 1 encounter power, 1 level 1 daily power, and so on. All of them make an attack roll against a defense score that's modified by one of their ability scores.
The 3e fighter could spend every turn saying "I hit that guy" and then roll 1d20 (or more depending on iterative attacks) and possibly damage.
The 3e wizard would say "I'm casting spell X" and pick targets and watch the DM make a bunch of saving throws OR say "I'm casting spell Y" and pick a target and make a ranged touch attack OR say "I'm casting spell Z" and pick some targets and watch them suffer because it's an area effect with no save.
The 3e wizard is required to manage resources on an entirely different level from the fighter. The 3e fighter can essentially go through life just spamming right-click on all its enemies. The 3e wizard can't plausibly do this. It's the nature of the system. Not all classes mechanically play the same..