Looking at your list again you have CS listed as 1st-level...where it deserves a higher rating.
I had just been looking at 2nd-level spells and miswrote ‘2nd’, but I meant 1st-level spell slot. I corrected the post. Sleep is a decent 1st-level spell that is strictly better than Color Spray. Even on its own, the worth of preparing and spending a slot for Color Spray seems doubtful.
Also, some real arguments with the 3rd-level list - it seems your ratings are all to do with how useful a spell is in combat as opposed to the rest of the time. Combat isn't everything.
Create Food and Water - one of the best utility spells out there...no more carrying rations, no more dying of thirst in the desert. Should be at least mid-"Not Bad", as an average of not much use sometimes and spectacularly useful at others.
The thing is, outside of combat, it is usually skill checks that overcome most challenges. If a spell is redundant with a skill check, it remains unimpressive.
Create Food and Water might make a Not Bad spell − at 1st-level − to choose for the limited prepared/known spells. But as a 3rd-level spell it seems inflated. The Wisdom (Survival) skill checks take care of most nourishment needs when civilization is absent. Food rations are cheap and convenient (costing sp!). It is hard to justify preparing Create Food and Water as one of the few prepared spells to embark on an adventure.
Remove Curse - should be right alongside Dispel Magic in the "Good" list...or at least you'll think so once your bacon has been saved by its use a few times.
Both Dispel Magic and Remove Curse are 3rd-level spells. Dispel Magic automatically dispels all magical effects of 3rd level or lower, including to dispel Bestow Curse automatically. So by itself, Dispel Magic already seems to do everything that Remove Curse can do, and does much more. Possibly, Dispel Magic is unable to suppress the effect of a cursed item, if the creation of a magic item is interpreted as not involving ‘spells’, but cursed items are highly situational anyway. It seems unreasonable for a character to prepare Remove Curse ‘just in case’ they come across a cursed magic item or an enemy who happens to cast Bestow Curse. Remove Curse is a Least Useful spell.
Speak With Dead - does nobody ever talk to their defeated foes any more? This should be SOP! Raise to "Good"
The Speak with Dead spell explicitly states that the dead are permitted to tell false information − and especially, the defeated foes will intentionally lie.
Even the true information from a nonhostile dead person is ‘brief’ and ‘cryptic’. The spell description itself undermines its own usefulness, at any level.
Speak with Dead also appears on the Bard spell list. The Bard is strongly advised to not waste the small number of known spells on this spell, unless the player understands exactly what its limitations are and comes up with a good plan to work around them. Similarly, in the majority of situations, a Wizard does well to not prepare this spell in advance.
Tongues - this one really depends on whether one's game has more or less realistic language rules and use. Low end of "Not Bad".
Most intelligent creatures speak Common, especially the ones players run into at lower levels. In unusual situations where Common was unknown, it is possible to cast the 1st-level Comprehend Languages, twice if necessary, one for each listener. It seems unwise to prepare Tongues ahead of time, ‘just in case’. On the other, if a player knows they are going into a situation where noone speaks Common, they would actually be in one of the rare situations where the Least Useful spell was useful.
If Tongues was a 2nd-level spell, even then, it would be Less Useful, because the chance of running into an intelligent creature that couldnt speak Common is less likely.
Better yet, make Tongues a 1st-level spell and get rid of Comprehend Languages. Even at 1st-level, Comprehend Languages is Less Useful, and a 1st-level Tongues would probably be Less Useful too.
Even when encountering someone that does not speak Common, players can attempt Intelligence checks and Wisdom (Insight) checks, to try communicate.
Plant Growth - does anyone ever cast this? Ever? Yeah, didn't think so.
Down into "Least Useful" for me.
For players who like Plant Growth, its main value is as a barrier for ‘crowd control’ to keep hostiles at bay. It creates a difficult terrain that drastically reduces speed, while also allowing unlimited ‘sculpting’, such as to cover a smaller area or to make paths for allies. The spell synergizes with ranged attacks. That said, it must be outdoors, where plants are, with hostiles arriving from the distance.
Probably the comparison between Plant Growth and Wind Wall as barrier spells for ‘crowd control’, needs to be better understood. Plant Growth seems to be viewed favorably while Wind Wall is viewed as meh.
For now, Plant Growth ‘rises’ to Less Useful just ‘below’ Wind Wall. But keep scrutinizing them to help the rankings stabilize.
3rd level overall is one where there really aren't many spells that would rate below "Not Bad".
3rd level is a weird mix of great spells and subpar spells, with not much in between.
Some of the subpar spells might work better as a lower level spell, such as Daylight, Water Breathing, Create Food and Water, Tongues, Phantom Steed, etcetera.
Other subpar spells might need rethinking. For example, Remove Curse might merge with Bestow Curse for a single spell with several options.
