It doesn't matter if it is confusing. The answer right now for new players is the same as it ever was... just learn it.
All of us can talk about what spells levels "should" have been named until we are blue in the face. But it is the exact same conversation that has occurred again and again and again for the last 30 years, and it's never changed. Why has it never changed? Simple. No one really cares. We all SAY "it would be better if..." but how many of us have ever changed what we refer to spell levels as? My guess is almost none of us. And if if we DID try to refer to spell levels as "circles" (for example) at some point... it certainly has never caught on with any other part of the D&D audience. And why? Because it doesn't actually matter. "Spell levels" is confusing? Yeah, well D&D on the whole is confusing, so what's one more thing? We just learn to deal with it.
If calling them "spell circles" really matters to any of us... then we just have to make the active choice to change it in our own game and stick with it, regardless of whether or not the makers of the game go along with it down the line. But I don't think that ever happens. Instead we will just continue to complain about it not being in the game but not actually do anything differently.
Just like the Warlord.
All of us can talk about what spells levels "should" have been named until we are blue in the face. But it is the exact same conversation that has occurred again and again and again for the last 30 years, and it's never changed. Why has it never changed? Simple. No one really cares. We all SAY "it would be better if..." but how many of us have ever changed what we refer to spell levels as? My guess is almost none of us. And if if we DID try to refer to spell levels as "circles" (for example) at some point... it certainly has never caught on with any other part of the D&D audience. And why? Because it doesn't actually matter. "Spell levels" is confusing? Yeah, well D&D on the whole is confusing, so what's one more thing? We just learn to deal with it.
If calling them "spell circles" really matters to any of us... then we just have to make the active choice to change it in our own game and stick with it, regardless of whether or not the makers of the game go along with it down the line. But I don't think that ever happens. Instead we will just continue to complain about it not being in the game but not actually do anything differently.
Just like the Warlord.