I know this sounds like heresy to some, but I think the 4e Wizard was a step in the right direction. You kept replacing lower level spells for higher level ones instead, ditching ones that fell behind the wayside. Spells had three recharge paradigms- the at-will scaling cantrips, the mid-tier spells that refreshed on a short rest, and a small number of heavy hitters that refreshed on a long rest, along with a smattering of utility spells. And rituals, which took time and money to use to balance their power.
And the thing was, there was a way for the 4e Wizard to swap out their spells, to keep the "prepared spells" flavor. Unfortunately it was tied to Tome Wizards, and most everyone wanted to use implements with mechanical benefits, like the Orb of Imposition to penalize saves.
I like playing Wizards, but in 5e, what starts happening is I end up with a very small amount of higher level spells, and a lot of 1st and 2nd level slots that I don't get much use out of (basically coming down to mostly casts of Shield and Misty Step!), since their impact on higher level encounters is often minimal, and I'm often better off spamming my attack cantrip if I want to conserve spell power.
TLDR: less spells overall, but the spells you have should be impactful for your level.
