I think that maybe one's first experience may color your perspective a bit, but preferences do change over time. I'm quite certain that the popularity of spellcasting classes surged during the popularity of Harry Potter. Add in the abusive power many players experienced with CoDzilla if they stared in 3E, and spellcasting classes would easily become the preferred classes for many. I personally do not like the prevalence of spellcasting in 5E, and would have preferred the bard, druid, and warlock as half-casters, paladin and ranger as 1/3rd casters, and the redundant sorcerer obliterated.
Another aspect is which game is being played, as there are a lot of other games where spellcasting isn't as important, if at all. In the AEG Legend of the Five Rings, there were only a few character "classes," and only one of them was a true spellcaster (monks later got some spell-like abilities), and to have a party without one was not unheard of. The Pinacle Deadlands had magical character choices, but they often came at such a cost that many chose not to play them. An old version of Shadowrun was the same way. One version of Exalted made magic so complicated that playing a spellcaster just wasn't a lot of fun. Finally, most sci-fi RPGs don't have any magic at all.